Gooners have been burnt before in the transfer window, so it is easy to listen to the countless speculation this summer and assume our strategy is yet again a scattergun approach. Andrea Berta’s policy, though, is to have discussions with the majority of the names on his shortlist and collect as much detail as possible. The Italian will gather information such as expected wages, asking price, and how interested a player is in moving to the club. It is how the 53-year-old worked at Atletico Madrid.
There are pros and cons to this approach. Let us look at five of each.
5 Cons
Putting pressure on the club
Our recruitment team’s priority is not to provide Gooners with entertainment during the off-season, and nor should it be. Yet from a PR point of view, you do not want your loyal customers going into a new campaign feeling underwhelmed either.
You already feel a divide within the fanbase is returning, so with a tricky fixture list to start with, Mikel Arteta could really do without supporters feeling let down before a ball has been kicked.
Not all rumours are true, but there are enough leaks to know there is credibility in some links. If you are talking to so many names, you are almost guaranteed to disappoint some fans, especially when a player is telling Arsenal ‘come and get me’.
If we end up with Sesko, the whole sport knows that Gyokeres said his preference was North London. Rodrygo has been described as our manager’s dream signing, yet at the same time, dialogue is progressing well regarding Eze.
What is the mood at the Emirates though if hopes are raised but we end up with Madueke? Probably not as disappointed if you had not put other talent in their heads in the first place. If you promised quality steak, you cannot then be cooking cheap burgers.
Overthinking the market
If you follow the press in Portugal, Viktor Gyokeres has told his loved ones he is moving to the English capital. He is even willing to upset and damage his reputation with Sporting Lisbon fans by fighting his employer to drop the asking price, even considering going on strike.
So the Swede has clearly been led to believe Arsenal are serious about him.
How does the 27-year-old feel then when he finds out the Gunners at the same time have been flirting with a younger model?
Eze is believed to be excited by the possibility of returning to where he was released, so how does he react if he goes online and realises while he is being seduced by promises, the same lines are being fed to Madrid?
You spend too long deciding between the pretty blonde or brunette, eventually you end up with neither.
The risk in stalling
While you may have numerous verbal agreements that the Emirates is their first choice, promises you are their preference and all the assurance in the world they want to be a Gunner, as long as nothing is official, anything can happen.
Football is a business, so no one is asking Arsenal to give Leipzig or Sporting an extra five to ten million if you truly feel you can call their bluff.
Yet it is a gamble because you are leaving the door ajar for another team to swoop in. It would take seconds for one of our rivals to submit a bid greater than ours. Then it is a case of, are we prepared to enter a bidding war?
Our Director of Football would then look foolish for not tying up proceedings sooner by just paying the asking price.
Being indecisive
Clearly, Mr Berta likes to have numerous plates spinning at once, but now that we are in July, he has to start making some choices.
Has he overcomplicated things by talking to so many candidates for one position? Especially with so many making it clear they would like to move to the Emirates.
For months a lot of journalists were convinced that Benjamin Sesko was the priority, but recently media outlets are saying the more all parties chat, Viktor Gyokeres now seems a more likely acquisition.
What if you get intel from Spain that Rodrygo has asked to leave Madrid?
Do you end negotiations with Eze?
Or are we tempted by Madueke because he is a cheaper alternative?
Surely too many questions can arise by essentially interviewing so many candidates instead of having a Plan A and only contacting Plan B if A falls through.
Time wasting
Mikel Arteta was saying at Christmas that our attack was short and needed help.
So while Mr Berta did not start his new job until March, let us not pretend he was not handed months’ worth of scout reports on possible strikers and wingers.
Having been in the vacancy now for a few months, the Italian seems to have negotiated with many agents and representatives. The only issue being he seems to have made agreements with everyone else but the actual clubs.
Unless you can trigger a release clause, it does not matter what the player has told you or how happy he is with the terms and conditions of a possible contract, if you cannot get their employers to agree on the value, it is all irrelevant.
Arsenal, before the end of the season, should have known the asking price for their main targets and if they agreed on that figure or not. Has too much time been spent on wooing so many players that you left yourself little time to actually negotiate with clubs?
If you cannot agree on the price, then so much time has been wasted.
5 Pros
Scouting the person
Andrea Berta is clearly making up a portfolio on the numerous names on our shortlist. The key information is, of course, asking price, salary expectations and length of contract.
Yet during this process, the Italian will also learn a lot about a player’s personality.
Imagine in an interview process you have all the qualifications that meet the job criteria, yet you can still conduct yourself in a manner which counts against you.
You like to assume that anyone our Director of Football is conversing with is good at football (else what would be the point), but why do they want to be a Gunner?
What motivates them? What are their aspirations?
Is one striker fixated on his wages while another is excited about the prospect?
Do you sense one possibility for the left-midfield role is hesitating while another is telling you the history of Arsenal?
In a young dressing room with a lack of leaders, these things matter.
Having a Plan B
Now Arsenal should (and I stress should) by now know the asking price for every player on their shortlist and if they agree with that valuation.
If they are realistically not going to find a compromise on that figure, then they have alternatives already saved on the phone.
Previous regimes did the opposite. They would spend an entire window haggling over every last penny, then tell Gooners that at least they tried and there was no Plan B because the club’s policy is to only consider the very best.
Some fans still believe this, others question whether we intentionally submit an offer we know will get rejected just to pretend we tried something (cough Ollie Watkins).
I have had to remind my peers for years, our recruitment team are not doing Arsenal a favour. It is literally their job to bring Mikel Arteta the best possible talent. They get paid a lot of money to do this, it is not okay to shrug shoulders and say ‘well, we tried’.
We have clearly been talking to so many players this summer, not even Arsenal can try that trick again.
Controlling the market
How Andrea Berta operates might be leaving some Gooners frustrated because they have to be patient and give the 53-year-old the benefit of the doubt. The ends justify the means.
If, by the time our squad fly to Asia this month, a new striker is on the plane, then it makes little difference whether he was purchased two weeks ago or next week.
Yet outside of North London, it might surprise you how many supporters of other clubs are complimentary of our transfer strategy. These people, of course, are not emotionally invested, but it also makes their opinion not biased.
By having so many plates spinning, Arsenal have major control of the market. A lot of dominoes only fall depending on what the Gunners do or do not do and how quickly.
Viktor Gyokeres, for example, has made it clear to Man United that the Emirates is his preference, meaning those at Old Trafford would have to wait for or hope the Gunners sign Benjamin Sesko for that to be a possibility.
The likes of RB Leipzig are in need of a cash injection after not qualifying for the Champions League, so at some point would like to know what our intentions are. Likewise, Crystal Palace have been left unsure if they need to be replacing Eze or Rodrygo is in fact our first choice.
If one or both arrive, is Martinelli or Trossard for sale?
The player forces the move
Talking to a player without his employer’s permission was once called tapping up. Now though, so many parties talk off record, it is almost accepted.
It seems Arsenal have mostly been speaking to agents and representatives but not the actual club themselves. The club are quite a huge ingredient in any deal happening.
So while you might read how much Gyokeres wants to move to North London, how excited Eze is to return to Arsenal, or that Rodrygo is about to tell Real Madrid he wants to leave, none of that matters if the Gunners cannot negotiate a price with who they play for.
Yet there is obviously a reason why Mr Berta likes to agree terms with the player before the club. It would not be professional of the Italian to directly ask anyone to force through a move, but that is kind of what he is doing without actually saying it.
It is Sporting Lisbon’s fault if they have gone back on their verbal agreement and it would be Gyokeres’s choice not to return to training.
Yet it is music to our Director’s ears and would not have got to this point had it not been for us talking to the striker first.
Equally, we have zero control over Rodrygo only starting once at the Club World Cup and not on his preferred left side.
Yet does the Brazilian think about leaving Spain without knowing there is an exciting project waiting for him?
Our bluff cannot be called
Mikel Arteta has never been great at keeping his cards close to his chest. Most of the world has known since January that Arsenal are in desperate need of a striker and the club would not dare start next season without one.
In the summer market, you would be expected to pay premium price for any goal scorer and if the selling party are aware of how in need you are of firepower, they will attempt to squeeze an extra ten to fifteen million out of you.
That is what Sporting Lisbon and RB Leipzig are trying to do, but both are in danger of talking themselves out of a deal.
Unlike previously though, where the Gunners would have left all their eggs in one basket, Andrea Berta can now call others’ bluff.
Part of negotiating is holding your nerve and not blinking first. Leipzig will be well aware that if they get too greedy with their asking price, Benjamin Sesko is not the only possibility, and that applies for the champions of Portugal as well regarding Gyokeres.
Equally, Palace, Real Madrid, Chelsea, etc. will know that while we might be interested in one of their players, we are not desperate to the point of paying over the odds.
Your thoughts appreciated in the comments.
Dan Smith
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Saka and Saliba would likely ask for higher salary, so Arsenal might be waiting until they extend their contracts before calculating how much money the new CF can get each week without breaching the FFP rules
As for Madueke, Arsenal might need a homegrown winger if Saka, Martinelli or Nwaneri threatens to leave
Surely some of these targets are smoke screen nothing more.
There is nothing wrong with Arsenal signing Aze and Rodrygo, in fact they are both on my wish list
Aze is a highly skill # 10 that provides a lot of creative spark through the middle, a dead ball specialist if you ask me, just what we need.
Rodrygo is a winger that is equally adept on both wings
OT : Herd some rumors Partey is charged, hoping it’s some sort of AI misinformation, as this would be the strangest thing since Al Gore said he invented the internet
Dan you gave us detailed insight to know Berta and how he operates. Thanks. Once the selling clubs know his methods they may not take his approach seriously and even may give him fake data about their players. His methods require extensive time and resources along with the patience of fans who normally want players bought asap. Berta has been successful with this method so let’s see his fruits at Arsenal. I wonder to know the alternative methods of others such as Edu. His methods need flexibility according to leagues. Liverpool and City for instance don’t talk too much about their targets just complete their signings overnight to the surprises of many even their fans. At the end of the day the final outcome determines the success of Berta’s methods then our verdict is deferred to August. So far Arsenal fans are on the losing side as they’ve no one in their side (bought) only constrained to talking about the signings of Liverpool, Chelsea, City etc.
If makeshift strikers Havertz and Merino can each get 9 goals,then Sesko can deliver now and get at least 20 goals.Sesko is a striker that Arsenal have scouted for over a year now and have chosen him over Gyokores since last summer window, when they attempted to buy him. Since Berta’s arrival,he has totally disregarded the scouts and Arteta choice, for a player he likes and that’s the reason Arsenal have not even sent in a bid for Sesko, far less to complete a deal. He wants to satisfy his selfish ego, as he had attempted to get Gyokores while he was at Athletico and failed. Berta is highly overrated and his incompetence has been exposed. Up to now he has failed to sell players like Zinchenko, Jesus, Vieira, Nelson and Lonkonga. Berta’s job is to get the deal done expediently for the players Arteta wants and he’s been a failure so far. Not impressed with Berta style of doing business, he looks a fraud.
Zubimendi has been signed so that’s a bonus🙄
@Wayne
stop spinning this false narrative, it won’t sell.
Obviously none of the above with Zubimendi. Talkswere held last year, he and his club didn’t want him to move and all last season, plans were put in place for a move this July. So Arsenal knew this was happening and so did Zubimendi.
Interesting points, hopefully it works. But no idea what he sees in Madueke though. Same with Norgaard, considering he doesn’t fit our playing style. Except he’s just around for emergency situations where Declan and/or Zubimendi are unavailable (please god). That deal reeks of paying for experience that doesn’t even fit us as a team. I hope I’m wrong.
The wait is OVER: Zubimendi IN, OK but the fee different from what we heard before. He rejected the champons Liverpool so prepare lyrics in that way. Nordgaard and Madueke in line to follow. Fortress ARSENAL!!! COYG… The suspense star of the movie the main dish enters the show when? The striker no.9
Gyokeres IN…He rejected Europe-less Man Utd to play for ARSENAL. Gyo show them your goals in the very first curtain raiser match v Utd. Now everything is IN IN IN with ARSENAL.
It doesn’t feel that Berta took this approach when signing Alvarez from City
I am getting very tired of the constant back and forth, but if we enter negotiations with Che for Madueke before tackling those other three positions, then I’ve had enough
Good article Dan but the fan’s feeling are irrelevant and are being rightly ignored. This is a business and if we end up winning a major trophy this season, no one will care if Berta and Arteta broke into a player’s house and forced him to sign at gun point.
When we signed Berta there was so much talking about good he was, i was intrigued. Now we see what the hype was all about. The whole world knew we needed a striker and were ready to fleece us instead we are bullying others.
Finally we are acting like a big club in the market. We have a manager whose project is clearly attracting players and a top sporting director who knows the art of negotiation.
Good point Ackshay. Credit where it’s due. I’m today upbeat by the actual and prospective signings. Proud to be a Gooner!
It should all be happening within the next three weeks, so still waiting to see what a possible starting eleven might look like. At this stage the prospect of a Zubamendi, Rice , Odegaard midfield looks exciting, while the idea of Noorgard makes my enthusiasm fizzle out like a stale balloon. Regarding Berta, I also have my reservations. His money ball approach worked at a cash strapped Atletico where they have been able to remain competitive with the two free spending giants, but in the end with the exception of a Liga title they were unable to win the big one , Champions League, because they simply didn’t have a super star opportunist who could snatch the vital goals. I hope that at Arsenal he will feel less restraint and think outside the box. I also hope that he doesn’t sacrifice our long term interests, meaning our younger less experienced talent by signing veterans and cluttering the squad with ready made one year wonders who will then have to be discarded beyond next season.