Why Man City chief Marwood can rebuild Arsenal
IT CERTAINLY wasn’t a bad run for a spell that lasted just three-and-a-half years. In that time, Manchester City signed Yaya Toure, David Silva, Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero, Aleksandar Kolarov, James Milner, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri.
Not every buy came right, of course, and the budget was almost too good to be true, but in his spell as director of football, Brian Marwood as good as built a title-winning team.
And then, in October 2012, along came Txiki Begiristain, and Marwood was relegated to Manchester City’s margins. Managing director, City Foot- ball Services, is his title now.
Whatever that means, he wasn’t responsible for spending close to £40 million on Eliaquim Mangala, now on loan to Valencia; or £28m on Stoke City reserve Wilfried Bony; or £17.1m on second-choice goalkeeper and noted liability, Claudio Bravo.
Maybe Marwood is perfectly happy with his new role; maybe he’s itching to get involved at the sharp end again. Either way, shouldn’t Arsenal find out by giving him a call?
It now looks likely that Arsene Wenger will stay, at least another two years. In that time the club hope to appoint a sporting director to oversee what will ultimately be giant upheaval. Could Marwood be that man?
Knows the club, knows the market, good contacts, good track record.
He might not have brought Pep Guardiola to Manchester City, but he did put the club together with Patrick Vieira, Arsenal legend, now managing New York City, and may be the sort of person who would be considered a successor to Wenger one day – or Guardiola.
Difficult
Putting Wenger’s future aside, there is huge rebuilding to be done at Arsenal this summer and at a difficult time, too. It is possible the club could need to replace Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Oezil at the least opportune moment, if Wenger fails to steer them into the Champions League for the first time since 1997-98.
Arsenal are not Manchester United. They do not have a recent history of titles and Champions League success. They are not acknowledged as the richest, most famous, club in Britain.
They are in London, true – but so are Chelsea and Tottenham, who will most likely be offering Champions League football, particularly if Arsenal miss out.
So this summer is going to take enormous skill to negotiate, and Wenger’s record since David Dein left has not always suggested recruitment is his strong point.
Arsenal considered Marwood when Begiristain arrived at Manchester City almost five years ago but decided not to pursue, but it is not as if the strength of the club has improved since then.
At City, Marwood was never a conventional sporting director, anyway.
He was charged with establishing a uniform “beautiful, possession-based football” across the brand of the City Football Group. Do those ideals sound at all familiar?
As Arsenal prepare to spen millions at the transfer market again, is Marwood, their former player, not worth the price of a telephone call, at least?
Moussa Sissoko helped put Newcastle in the Championship, then blithely announced he was looking for a club in the Champions League. Incredibly, he got one – and for a fee of £30m.
Now after a single, deeply unimpressive season at Tottenham just six league starts, the last on December 28 – it seems as if Sissoko will be on the move again, in the summer. Yet who would take a chance?
He isn’t good enough for the elite and, for the money, no small club could risk building a midfield around him. He’s had his use of the Premier League, they of him, and we know who got the better deal. – Daily Mail