ADAMS: 40 YEARS OF TOP ARSENAL SCOUTING HAS BEEN SUNK

Club chiefs out of their depth, blasts legend

MIKEL ARTETA has defended the Arsenal hierarchy from a stinging attack from Tony Adams – but admits the club DO need to prove their ambition in the transfer market.

Gunners legend Adams tore into Arsenal’s head of football Raul Sanllehi and technical director Edu, describing them as being “out of their depth” with their transfer strategy.

But ahead of the FA Cup semi-final with Manchester

City tonight, Arteta said: “I have full faith.

“I have a really good relationship with Edu, with Raul, with managing director Vinai Venkatesham, and I am in direct contact with the owners.

“We know what we want to do. That’s not an issue.”

Adams (right) had earlier blasted the decision-makers at his former club.

Speaking to TALKSPORT, he said: “My fundamental issue is with recruitment.

I think the club is going through such a recruitment issue at the moment – it’s not relying on agents.

“That’s 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.

“It took (former chief scout) Steve Rowley 40 years to build that scouting network, and it did brilliantly, got the best players from around the world.

“And it’s just been blown up. Edu, I love him, he’s a beautiful man, it’s not personal, but he has no experience of building European squads.

“Even Raul Sanllehi came from Barcelona, all the money in the world, it doesn’t look like he’s going to get money.

“Those people are out of their depth, I’m sorry. They need to build a fantastic squad that challenges for the league and it hurts.”

The controversy comes with Arsenal 22 points behind second-placed City in the table and set to again miss out on Champions League football.

Boss Arteta (with Edu, above) continued his defence of the Gunners chiefs, but admitted he was concerned about whether Arsenal could compete with the top flight’s heavyweights in the transfer market this summer.

He added: “We work so closely – with all the years that we’ve been at the club – with the owners to put together a plan that we need to take this club forwards.

“Everybody has the same ambition and we are all in this situation together.

“But if you ask me right now what I have and how can I do it? I’m sorry, I don’t know.

“There are a lot of questions that we cannot resolve right now with the situation that we have financially.

“The other thing is that we don’t know whether we will be in Europe and we have players with whom we don’t know what is going to happen.

“That’s the reality. It’s not about sending a message. We all work with the same objective – to try to bring the club back as quickly as possible.

“To fight with the top teams in the country and in Europe. I want to do that as quickly as possible.”