How Arsenal rediscovered their edge in the transfer market over the summer
A smart new backroom team helped the club enjoy a very successful window, says Sam Dean
When Raul Sanllehi arrived at Anfield last weekend, his rucksack slung over one shoulder of a club-branded suit, the word spread fast among the Arsenal supporters loitering outside the ground. Many reacted as if a Hollywood A-lister had appeared among them, clambering to take a picture before he slipped away. Others simply wanted to get close enough to thank the man who has been cast as the saviour of their summer.
It must have been a strange moment for Sanllehi, the club’s head of football, but it would not have been entirely unexpected. Earlier this month he had similar treatment outside Arsenal’s training ground and it has not been missed by senior figures at the club that Sanllehi has become a sensation on social media.
The praise for Sanllehi – or “Don Raul”, as fans have nicknamed him – has included light-hearted calls for him to be honoured with a statue. One fan even joked that Sanllehi was so cunning that he
could start a bidding war between Barcelona and Real Madrid for Shkodran Mustafi.
All this is a consequence of Arsenal’s extensive transfer business this summer, which has provided a renewed sense of optimism ahead of tomorrow’s north London derby. As the leader of the club’s football operations, Sanllehi has been held up as the hero, the charismatic Catalan with an eye for a deal and a contacts book as thick as his accent. He would be the first, though, to say that Arsenal’s window was as much the result of the club’s revamped structure as it was the product of his own labour.
This is not to downplay Sanllehi’s role. No man was more important in the incomings and outgoings from the club. The £72million move for Nicolas Pepe, for example, was only made possible because of Sanllehi’s relationship with Marc Ingla, the Lille chief executive. They worked together at Barcelona, where Sanllehi was director of football before moving to London in 2017.
Sanllehi’s previous work has provided him with a network of relationships that made him such a valuable addition. Ivan Gazidis, the former chief executive, and Arsene Wenger had sizeable contacts books of their own, but Sanllehi brought connections with more clubs and more agents.
It helps that he has the easy charm to be liked by those he deals with. When Sanllehi calls, it seems, people tend to pick up. It is understood he has also played a critical role in paving the way for contract talks with top scorer Pierre-emerick Aubameyang.
The deification of Sanllehi, however, gives a misleading impression of how the transfer window unfolded at Arsenal. It is not simply a case of one man picking up the phone and haggling. There are other factors at play, and other people who are far less visible than Sanllehi but no less important.
Chief among them is Huss Fahmy, who joined in 2017 from Team Sky and was last year promoted to the role of director of football operations.
Multiple sources have told The Daily Telegraph that Fahmy was the driving force behind the £27million purchase of centreback William Saliba from Saintetienne, for example. Fahmy “did everything” on the transfer, from negotiating the player’s terms to agreeing a fee with the club.
Those who have dealt with Fahmy describe him as ultracompetent. He is often the primary point of contact for agents looking to move their players on, and one intermediary was taken aback in a recent window by the matter-offact way in which he revealed the club’s valuation of their player. There is no time for sentiment when finances are as stretched as they are at Arsenal, now in their third consecutive season without Champions League football.
Beyond Fahmy and Sanllehi, managing director Vinai Venkatesham is essential to the financing. All transfers are also discussed with figures from the academy and loans manager Ben Knapper to ensure that a player’s arrival would not block the path of a promising prospect.
Analytics expert Jaeson Rosenfeld is involved, too.
Most of Arsenal’s summer moves were months in the making. The signing of David Luiz from Chelsea was the exception, with Sanllehi and technical director Edu enjoying a strong relationship with the Brazilian’s representative, Kia Joorabchian, that allowed them to complete a move that would not have been possible under the previous regime. Alex Iwobi’s £34million exit to Everton was equally sudden, with the winger only becoming aware of a potential move four days before it happened.
At its most basic level, the transfer window is a game of relationships. The key question is simple: who knows who? For the Pepe deal, it was Sanllehi who had the crucial connection. The since-departed Sven Mislintat was central to the Aubameyang signing from Borussia Dortmund last year. Edu initiated talks with Luiz. Manager Unai Emery helped to convince Dani Ceballos he should join on loan. Francis Cagigao, the head of international
Transfers are about relationships – who knows who? Who has the crucial connection?
recruitment, was behind the signing of teenage winger Gabriel Martinelli. Steve Morrow, from the scouting set-up, was leading the way on their interest in a Championship player.
This is not to say that everything has run entirely smoothly. In the spring, there were whisperings of discord in the recruitment department, which was unsettled by the departure of Mislintat and the failure to secure the services of transfer guru Monchi. Edu did not arrive until July, by which point most of their transfer movements had been mapped out.
All the evidence from this summer suggests that the modernisation of the approach to the market has given Arsenal an edge they previously lacked. Every penny counts, and the hard-line approach is largely driven by financial necessity. This is why they have been insistent on sell-on clauses in most of their sales this summer, including even the £2 million deal with Nottingham Forest when they bought Carl Jenkinson.
Arguably the best indication of the change is the departure of Laurent Koscielny. The captain was clearly not expecting such strong resistance when he decided this summer that he wanted to return to France for free, despite having a year left on his contract. Koscielny reportedly complained that his subsequent dispute with the club would never have happened under Wenger. Perhaps that is the point. Times have changed, and so has the club.
Arsenal have new leaders and a new approach as they look to create, in the words often used by Emery, a “new future”.