SUMMER WINDOW FINGER POINTING CONTINUES
I usually forget the Le Grove birthday, but here I am, all grown up, remembering important moments… 19 years old today! Quite something. The habit of a lifetime. A father-son effort using the power of words to feed a daily Arsenal habit for people much like yourself reading right now.
As the world of content evolves from short form to long form, from pictures to video, to audio, to whatever Clubhouse was… the good old-fashioned blog, which was quite trendy and cool when I started, just won’t die.
I want to thank you all for reading the site, sending emails and messages, and being so kind when I get the chance to meet you in person. It’s the biggest privilege in the game to write for people as thoughtful and considered as you all. I mean that, I never have a bad conversation with someone who reads the site, it’s an instant friendship. Johnny said at the live show that we don’t know anyone who is sitting in the audience. I’m a little different; I know a lot of you, and when we meet, it’s an instant connection because you spend time with me.
This website has given me everything. A disciplined habit that teaches me something new every day, some of my very best friends who are LG adjacent, or just literally people I met from the site. I have a family because of a job that sent me to America, which I was hired for because I pitched Le Grove as real work. I’m living an extraordinary life for someone who worked in a cardboard box factory. No insult to the box factory folk; I had a good time there.
I remember my mum asking me once why I bother with the effort of all of this, and I didn’t have an answer outside: ‘I like it.’ This was never meant to be anything more than a side-hustle fun. I didn’t even care about the financial side for 16 years. I guess there’s a lesson there… there’s no such thing as wasting time if the thing you’re doing is something you love (that is legal, not addictive, and revolves around people).
I am extremely lucky; there was no grand plan here. I fell up the stairs into doing something I love. So, thank you again. Being on this Arsenal journey with all of you couldn’t be better. I mean, it could… we could have signed Vini Jnr. Won a Champions League. Wenger could have… just kidding.
Here’s to another 19 years. We’ll do something special for the LG20. A live show. Big booze-up. Who knows. I’ll get thinking on it!
Chelsea today, is it? Ask Wenger about celebrations coinciding with games against that lot. Not good, not good.
Hopefully the home-game nature of it makes it a little more party cake and piñatas for me. It’s a big one, no doubt. The winner could go top.
The games on show yesterday were diabolical. Man City only managed a 1-0 against Coventry… just three shots on target. Spurs drew against Forest, zero shots on target. Hull took a point off Villa, taking them to SECOND, wow, quite amazing, you have to say.
We’re too early in the season for me to find any sort of narrative angles here outside… please, just put in a shift and grind out a win. The story is the same at all the big clubs right now, survive the first three months of the season, be in the mixer when it counts. It’s going to be rough for all the big teams who had mega representation at the World Cup. Arsenal are going to be affected by World Cup burnout… how hard, that is the question.
I kind of dropped the preview yesterday, so I don’t have too much on the game today, though I did just want to revisit the Andrea Berta stuff, because Sami Mokbel ran a piece that dived into some of the same themes James over at The Athletic had… Berta just didn’t deliver this summer and his methods might not be what Arsenal expected.
I wrote quite extensively about what Arsenal were signing up for last year when they hired him. It was another Raul Sanllehí at the express wishes of the manager. Arteta, fully caught up in the glamour of a well-connected Sporting Director who knew how to work the big deals scene. I find some of this stuff a bit silly… no doubt, being connected to people who make the world of football move is important. But you can be a deeply analytical and progressive Sporting Director and also be able to deal with the movers and shakers in the agent world.
At core, the job of a Sporting Director, when it comes to players, is to mitigate risk on spend. Not everyone is going to be a rockstar signing; the best Sporting Directors make fewer mistakes. To my mind, great Sporting Directors need vision, a team that knows how to activate it, and, on the player front, you should always make decisions based on the most robust intel available to you. You want a team looking under rocks, calling ex-coaches, using AI to analyze every facet of the player’s profile; you need analysts working out how the player operates in the various game states you play with eye test gut feel, and you need on-the-ground people who watch how the player behaves in all manner of situations… not this (via Mokbel).
It is claimed Berta relies significantly on his vast network of agent connections rather than acting on the club’s existing scouting information when analysing the market.
For example, last summer, when all the scouting information pointed towards a move for Benjamin Šeško, Berta’s arrival meant the club pivoted to Viktor Gyokeres, who is currently second-choice striker.
This summer the club’s late dalliance with Lyon winger Malick Fofana provided a further example of Berta leaning on his agency connections after management agency Roc Nation offered Arsenal an opportunity to sign the Belgium international.
Berta’s relationship with Roc Nation was particularly prevalent this summer given Arsenal’s pursuit of Vinícius and the sale of Gabriel Martinelli, who are both clients of the agency.
All you need to know about Berta is that he chose Viktor Gyokeres as his first big swing… nothing else. He stopped 18 months of deep scouting on another player to go for the striker who is 118th out of 118 strikers in the Champions League for touch.
Two articles with trusted club sources that go to the highest level at Arsenal say…
He doesn’t really negotiate deals, he uses intermediaries.
Josh K had to step in to close out the deal for Konsa.
Kia managed the deal for Bruno G.
The spinning-plates approach doesn’t lower fees, but does annoy other clubs.
Close relations with Roc Nation meant average talent like Malick Fofana was put on the table.
The club put layers over the head of Berta (as reported here).
Arsenal missed out on a major piece of summer business because we were dog-walked by Vini Jnr and Julián Álvarez didn’t want us.
Berta spent a lot of money last summer and people danced in the streets that he was the next level… my view was always, wait. We waited, and won the Premier League. The big question is whether you think that was because of the genius of Berta… or we just have the best coach in the world who finally had a squad big enough to sledgehammer the season.
A few months ago, someone was leaking that Monaco and Bayern were in for him as he sought a blockbuster new deal. I’d be shocked if those two clubs would hire someone of his skillset… but the question now is very simple… do Arsenal continue down this path, knowing that one day, it’ll be a contacts guy in charge of hiring in the next Arteta. If the manager is of the same mindset as the coach, then you can really enter a dramatically sh*ttier phase of your existence. Data over contacts for me. I’d rather know a decision was bad based on a robust analysis than have to wonder if a deal was done because someone needs a favor.
This whole issue does speak to leadership and governance. You cannot, under any circumstances, let a manager pick a Sporting Director. But that’s what we did; now everyone is leaking against that decision, and when Mikel was asked whether his forwards were world-class, the best he could do was say, ‘I love my players.’
I love my manager, no doubt.
He is the difference-maker at Arsenal, but he needs a co-equal at minimum, not a lackey. It is his fault he has Gyokeres; he didn’t watch the videos. It is his fault he has Madueke. Any gripes he has about the squad are on him.
But… he’s the best in the game. We can still win it all. It’s just a shame we have to do it the hard way, because Pep didn’t have to, and Arteta is on that level.
So, a big game today. Let’s enjoy it. If you’re going, know that I’m jealous. But, be sure to sign up for a membership right now and get the LIVE On The Whistle right after the game. Members get LIVE, and they’re the only ones who get the full show!
