Tony Adams identified the problems at Arsenal and its recruitment policy before the sacking of our former Arsenal head of football, Raul Sanllehi by slamming the former Barcelona man for being out of his depth.
The Gunners appointed the Spaniard in 2018 in their bid to get better off the pitch, especially in player recruitment.
He had been in charge of overseeing the club’s decision making from that time, but as they looked to rebuild following over 20 years under the management of Arsene Wenger, they have fired him.
Mikel Arteta is now the club’s manager, and he has shown that he can actually deliver the goods when backed properly.
The club is keen to make sure that the Spaniard succeeds and they are restructuring the around him.
The sacking is expected to hand Arteta more control over transfers and Adams had recently come out to slam Raul and Edu by claiming that they were out of their depth, especially in terms of recruitment.
He previously told Alan Brazil and former teammate Ray Parlour on TalkSPORT: “My fundamental issue is with recruitment.
“I think the club is going through such a recruitment issue at the moment.
“Relying on agents is not the way to go. It’s not Arsenal DNA I’m afraid. I don’t like it. I’ve got to say it publicly.
“Edu, I love him. He’s a beautiful man, a lovely man and it’s not personal, but he has no experience of building European squads.
“Even Raul Sanllehi, he came from Barcelona where he had all the money in the world, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to get money here!
“Those people are kind of out of their depth, I’m sorry.
“They need to build a fantastic squad that challenges for the league, and it hurts.”
OT.. Sterling with the miss of the season then Lyon go and score a 3rd!!!
City just aren’t meant to win owt in Europe – a bit like us ☹
OT Corrupt oil billionaires 1, Lyon 3. So thrilled at a win for honest football!
@jon fox
Karma is real…
Aw! I’d hoped City would win- corrupt owners or not. They play in our home league and I like most of the players. I know Siamois will be happy but he is showing a degree of patriotism for a French team
Sue they got there by dismantling our teams of the past.Without oil money they would be nowhere. I’d rather cheer for Pool on a European nite than City or Chelsea.Would be nice if Lyon do lift the UCL
It’s a fair point and I’m not making light of City and it’s owners and their methods but I have always cheered the so called home teams if Arsenal aren’t involved
Lyon would be a welcome change to the usual suspects.
Ah Sue! If only your brain matched your big heart you would be a master mind. To NOT care about corrupt owners does so MUCH damage to our whole beautiful game. You must know the expression ” only when good people stand by and do nothing can evil people prosper”. Does the SOULof the sport we all love honestly mean so little to you? I really hope you can change your thinking on this, as aclean and non corrupt sport it is so vital for ALL fans everywhere.
Many other things in football are also corrupt and some more close to home for us Gooners than even City too. But you cannot hope to make things better by “not caring” about the present corruption.
Thanks for your vote of confidence Jon
I certainly do care about corruption and as you alluded to there have been some naughties going on behind the scenes at the Emirates. There’s all sorts of unfairness going on everywhere.
I seem to be embroiled in a discussion about how City are financed and how they nicked half our first team when all I was doing was wanting a home nation team to win. That was an error on my part
That’s true@ SueP!😁
No need for that cheesy smile!😂😂
At least one of us is happy, Siamois 😜
Was a good game for the neutrals… not as exciting as last night… but still good. The semis should be very entertaining!! I bet you’ll want a Lyon/PSG final!!
I think the German juggernaut aka Bayern will win it now! Just imagine Gnabry with a CL medal 🙂
Oh, Sterling…. gunna have many sleepness nights after that!
What a donkey!!! 😀
Yet another reality check for those who boasted that “We’ve got our Arsenal back” when gazidis announced his vision of the future.
He, along with kronkie, had successfully stabbed Wenger in the back for the previous couple of years regarding transfers and it was seen that the time was now right for the gazidis revolution and dynasty.
In came the “three musketeers who were going to show the world how it was to be done – Raul, Vinai and Huss, with gazidis leading this revolution!!!
Within six months, gazidis betrayed the club, moving to AC Milan, Sanllehi has suddenly left, Fahmy is, supposedly, still dealing with contracts and the club itself is holding an internal investigation into the transfer paid for Pepe.
Yet this was all supposed to improve the situation?!?!?
Out of this fiasco, at least it seems that Mikel Arteta will have more say in identifying transfer targets, along with Edu Gaspar.
Also, the new board member, Tim Lewis is being credited with unravelling the Pepe saga and, being a lawyer, should get this issue cleared up sooner rather than later.
I wonder if he can find where twent years of CL revenue went?
Hopefully his appointment will stop any chance of David O’Leary coming back to the club he has put down so many times, as a proposed board member.
Once again, Tony Adams sees it as it is – if all this Karma being talked about is real, ivan gazidis has unintentionally brought about the establishment of the “Arteta Dynasty”.
Something tells me we will be very active regarding the in and out department of players in the next week or so.
I’ve read that Sanllehi was the vote that stopped O’Leary from joining the board. We may be in for another wild ride, Ken. We seemingly keep appointing people who do not have the clubs best interest in mind, or know very little about what IS best for the club. KSE are awful owners. I do like the recent move of making Josh Kroenke more involved tho. Because Stan was doing absolutely nothing and obviously doesn’t care. At least we finally have someone from KSE who can look out for the club to some degree. I’m very confused about how to feel about the changes to come because it’s hard to tell if they are going to be good or bad moves. Sad that Kroenke has all the power.
RSH, your right that Stan has all the power, but I think MA will be a massive thorn in his side, if kronkie doesn’t back him up… at least to the extent of giving him the ear of Josh to convey his needs.
We have all said that something was not right with the contract /transfer going ons and with MA reportedly having a lot more say, we might finally get some idea of the players he wants.
A very important day for our club in my opinion.
Ken, I have argued for some time that under Kroenke the issue has not been money, but how the Board and senior executives have mismanaged Arsenal’s player and financial assets. This has been evident since the departure of David Dein and the coming of Ivan Gazidis.
Kroenke and KSM have been culpable because they have selected and retained the Board and senior executive. It was difficult to understand how a billionaire with a successful business record would allow this to happen.
They have now reacted by bringing in Tim Lewis to audit the situation. In my view a number of issues led to this action:
1.Arsenal’s declining league position (believe it or not);
2.Arsenal’s poor performance in the transfer market, buying high, selling low;
3. The loss of highly competent staff like Mislantat, Johnson and medical staff (good managers notice this) ;
4.The impass over negotiating the movement out and continuing saga of Mezut Ozil (an outlay of approx £130 million over the full term of his contracts);
and most importantly
5.The decrease in asset value of Arsenal FC in an amount of £150 million.
Kroenke is no fool; however the pressure is on him and KSM to bring in the right Board members and senior executives to support Mikel Arteta going forward.
ozziegunner, no arguments with you on the points you make, to be honest, I never have.
The new regime was going to be a disaster from day one (not hindsight, just common sense) but we were all so desperate for a change of direction, it has taken three years to see it.
Let’s hope that Tim Lewis can sort this out and YES INDEED we sorely miss David Dein.
jon, what do you have against David O’Leary please? Sanheili was the stumbling block in his appointment.
ozzie, If your post was by any chance meant for me, I do not understand why you think I have anything against O’Leary. The only time I have ever mentioned him on this site was just now, to ask KEN WAS THERE ANY TRUTH IN THE RUMOUR, AS I HAS NOT PREVIOUSLY HEARD THAT RUMOUR.
I had a huge regard for him as our player all those years ago. But Ialso remember he was in charge of LEEDS, when they spent what they were not earning and subsequently got relegated with a huge long term fight to get back in the PREM. PETER RIDSWELL WAS THE OWNER THEN BUT I MUST ASSUME O’LEARY, AS MANAGER, KNEW THE TRUE VALUE OF INCOMING PLAYERS AT THE VERY LEAST.
To me that does not bode well as a prospective DOF at Arsenal but I have nothing save those comments(which I have never mentioned before this moment) against him at all. Of course your comment may have been intended for the other “Jon” on here , so if it was, then forgive me.
Ken Several points on your fine post. Firstly, total agreement . Secondly, what is the rumour concerning O’Leary and are there legs in it, in your opinion? I have always thought it odd, to say the very least that a man such as Adams has been relentlessly kept away from Arsenal for all those years after he retired. More in THAT that meets the eye,IMO.
Will the lawyer Tim Lewis now be charged with ensuring complete moral and financial probity within the club and board itself and how much power will he be given to do so! Is he himself a life long Gooner or not? Many more questions now arise, but as you say, it at least SEEMS that more power will from now on reside with MA and Edu, both true football folk and that has to be good news, though it may take a little longer to bear real fruit, dependent on Kroenke and his famous “generosity,” ahem!
Kroenke is holding this club back. He should just sell us and go concentrate on his hot dog franchise
Lance, Kroenke and KS&E have reacted by sending Sanheili packing. The interesting thing will be whether the Tim Lewis investigation findings ever see the light of day and where KS&E go from here.
Kroenke and KS&E will not sell unless a suitor with the required billions arrives on the scene.
How on earth did Arsenal pay GB 72 million for Pep and another gbp 350 weekly for Ozil?This is hamstringing the gunners financially.
Hopefully Arteta will sort it all out .
By the way,the ball is round. Lyon will go against Bm as firm underdogs but dont be surprised the German may prevail only after extra time
£82 million for Pepe due to grifters, conmen and thieves.
£350 weekly seems to be more like what ozil’s entitled to 😉 instead of £350k
IMO , even your first figure is too much. He is not only worth nothing at all ; he is a net loss to us and is of zero use on the field as he refuses to try and will not leave til he has wrenched every penny he is legally entitled to from our club. An all round bad guy IMO!
Your emoji found it funny but I FIND IT A TRAGIC SITUATION.
O’Leary is being tipped to be next DOF.