Arsenal move for Australian fitness expert signals Wenger win
Arsenal are expected to appoint Australian fitness expert Darren Burgess as director of high performance in a significant addition to the club’s backroom staff.
Burgess is close to agreeing a deal with Arsenal in a move that has been driven through by chief executive Ivan Gazidis – who promised fans this year that changes would be made – and that manager Arsène Wenger has rubber-stamped.
The highly rated Burgess will report directly to Wenger but is expected to be given a wide-ranging brief to include overall control of medical, fitness, psychology and performance analysis at the club, as well as working with the academy.
It appears that Burgess’s planned role encompasses everything bar player recruitment and scouting, and is a sign that Wenger has won his battle to ensure Arsenal do not appoint a director of football.
Burgess worked at Liverpool from 2010 to 2012, where the players thought highly of him. He then returned to Australia, where he had been in charge of fitness and conditioning for the Socceroos national team who reached the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
The 43-year-old is working with the Australian rules club Port Adelaide, where he is the high performance manager, and there has been annoyance at his decision to leave at a critical point of their season. He is, nevertheless, out of contract at the end of the Australian season.
Wenger does not want to make significant changes to his longserving staff – indeed, he would like to retain them all – including goalkeeping coach Gerry Payton and fitness coach Tony Colbert, whose positions had appeared under threat.
It remains to be seen what Burgess’s appointment means for Colbert and also Shad Forsythe, Arsenal’s head of athletic performance enhancement, whose arrival was much-heralded in 2014 after his work with the Germany team. Forsythe, though, is expected to work closely with Burgess.
Meanwhile, Arsenal have received further encouragement in their attempts to sign Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon this summer. According to sources close to the French striker, he has accepted that he should not hold out for a move to Atlético Madrid – a deal was agreed before the Fifa transfer ban was upheld preventing the Spanish club from registering a player until January – and has to consider other options.
Arsenal have made an offer for Lacazette, the Lyon president, Jean-michel Aulas, has claimed, but are not thought to have yet come close to his asking price of €55million (£48.7million) plus €12million (£10.6 million) in add-ons for the 26-year-old.
Lacazette also wants to ensure he makes the right move to enhance his chances of making France’s squad for next summer’s World Cup.