The inside story of Transfers and Agents

Nice post pp.

How Arsenal already has a sporting director
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I think Smith admitted we don't, with other parties doing that role including D. Law. The point of a sporting director is to link administration and playing side. Thats why so many are ex-football men. Its very rare to find a Dein figure these days.

comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 hour, 43 minutes ago
Nice post pp.

How Arsenal already has a sporting director
-----------------

I think Smith admitted we don't, with other parties doing that role including D. Law. The point of a sporting director is to link administration and playing side. Thats why so many are ex-football men. Its very rare to find a Dein figure these days.
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Mmm.. no. listen again from 11:40
I quote what Jon Smith said "we do have a sporting director and that's D Law"

i think what he was eluding to was a SD sits in between Administration and the Football side of things and he's performing that role by proxy but not actually the SD.

comment by jonafc for real (U1385)
posted 12 minutes ago
i think what he was eluding to was a SD sits in between Administration and the Football side of things and he's performing that role by proxy but not actually the SD.
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yes obviously, but the point is according to him we have someone doing that type of role.

Look how this educated intelligent man, who is in the know and has insider info on the club speaks about the arsenal and wenger. Then compare it to the uneducated rif raf on this forum

comment by Passion Power -I'm a .....¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (U8398)
posted 3 hours, 45 minutes ago
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 hour, 43 minutes ago
Nice post pp.

How Arsenal already has a sporting director
-----------------

I think Smith admitted we don't, with other parties doing that role including D. Law. The point of a sporting director is to link administration and playing side. Thats why so many are ex-football men. Its very rare to find a Dein figure these days.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mmm.. no. listen again from 11:40
I quote what Jon Smith said "we do have a sporting director and that's D Law"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nah pp. He was insinuating they don't but others perform that role. And Smith went on say he doesn't like directors of football because they have favourite agents.

Its because agents ingratiate themselves with the director of football and then shut out the likes of Smith. Who is obviously now on the outside at a lot of club hence the need to write books.

A Director of football needs to have footballing knowledge. Now mostly they are ex-players or ex-scouts or ex-youth development managers or in fact ex-managers. Rarely they can be administrators or shareholders like David Dein or Ken Friar. But because we don't have smaller shareholders any more its very unlikely to find a man who is that obsessed with football because his income depends on it. Dein for example had a small accountancy firm, I believe, till his Arsenal holdings started to get so much bigger that he concentrated on football. These days most clubs are owned by billionaires so a club is a small part of his holding. That means they create a corporate structure. In such an organisation you need to appoint a man with footballing knowledge to bridge administration and the front office. At this time that is only Wenger so he takes so much time deciding on what he needs that we miss out on opportunities. Which is why I so desperately want for Wenger to go up stairs and be that man. Leave the coaching/tactics/player selection to younger men.

^ Wenger moving upstairs seems like an ideal solution. However there are a couple of problems with it:

First of all, Arsene has on many occasions stated that he loves being in the thick of it out on the training ground far too much to move into a role that doesn't involve that day-to-day interaction with the playing staff. I believe he is also far too emotionally invested in the players to make impartial decisions over new signings that may affect the current players.

Secondly, the current level of power he has established and the general esteem in which he is held by the board and owner mean that a new manager/coach would probably find it very difficult to get any decisions through that Wenger didn't agree with. Essentially you're left with the same situation as now where Arsene is the all-powerful decision-maker, only he'd have someone else putting the cones out for training. Quite hard for any coach to work under those circumstances.

I think that's why Fergie distanced himself from any official role at United when he left. He's a kind of non-exec director/club ambassador now iirc.

He's on ssn right now

I believe he is also far too emotionally invested in the players to make impartial decisions over new signings that may affect the current players.
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I agree. And I think that lack of perspective hurts the club. But players have a short shelf life and so it will pass if he is not involved day to day. Whats more he will have to negotiate with agents which I think will help Wenger look at the players in a different light.


Owner mean that a new manager/coach would probably find it very difficult to get any decisions through that Wenger didn't agree with
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The manager isn't involved with the owner at the moment. Wenger answers to nobody because he was part of the interview process that appointed Gazidis. At least with Wenger the manager will answer to him and as long as the roles are clearly defined I am not sure there would be those problems.

For example Pep answers to Tixiki. The problem with what Fergie is doing is making comments without any consequences. He was responsible for Moyes hiring but took no blame when he crashed and burned. At least as director of football Wenger will have to take responsibility for whatever he says or does.