Vinai And Raul – Part 2
May 23rd, 2019 by 'holic
Arsenal.com have published the second part of the interview with Vinai Venkatesham and Raul Sanllehi, and there was pretty good explanation of how the structure of the club has changed in the past year.
I have to say that Sanllehi, far more in control of this part of the interview, is an accomplished talker in a foreign tongue. Some may dismiss his smooth patter as well-coached PR but actually I thought he came across as sincere and knowledgeable as you would need your head of football to be.
His likening of the new structure as a skeleton on which we will add muscle and heart. It was good to see the first team put at the head of the skeleton, that’s obviously how it should be, But the emphasis on the academy pushing talent upwards through the legs was very clear. We need to be producing more homegrown talent because that is how all the big clubs act, he said. I’m assuming he disregards the freakish nature of Manchester City’s and PSG’s situation as somehow ignoring them as big clubs.
Even better was the importance of data, analytics, and performance maximisation incorporated. These are areas that we have developed significantly in the last year and we had thought ourselves better advanced than most beforehand. Technical quality allied to better fitness are areas we have perhaps not mastered in recent seasons. Raul’s explanation of using the data to avoid mistakes was probably aimed not just at the current squad, but any future acquisitions too.
To think Ivan Gazidis has been replaced by Vinai suggests how little he contributed, or was allowed to, in the club under Arsene Wenger’s domination. How much the boss did is emphasised by the appointment not just of a head coach, but also a technical director (Edu?) and head of football operations.
We were warned in part one that the discussion would get into the area of contracts and transfers. Raul went further than we might have expected with the Aaron Ramsey situation, and was frankly and rightly critical of us having allowed him to reach the final year of his contract. He did confirm that it was us who withdrew the offer of the contract and explained that the likely offer we would have had to make him to stay would have ‘imbalanced’ the dressing room.
I’m not convinced by the latter point when it is known that we have at least three players earning in excess of £150k per week. I did pick up on an aside he made about Aaron continuing to receive large offers from other clubs. Strictly speaking this was tapping up last Autumn, but all clubs do it as Raul hinted at earlier. That does tie in with the possibility of Raul and/or Vinai having taken umbrage to Aaron being hawked around by his agent after we thought a deal was close.
He was very reassuring about how prepared we were for the transfer window and how he personally hates deals being stretched out to the last day. The proof of the pudding will obviously be in the eating but let’s hope he delivers on what I am sure are his honestly held views.
If you haven’t watched it I would recommend you find a spare 25 minutes. I do feel a bit more positive having watched it, but then I have very rose-tinteds, as you well know.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
53 Responses to “Vinai And Raul – Part 2”
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Cheers H!
Vivai and Raul sounds like a camp Vegas magic act from around 1982.
Vinai as well.
Bloody typos.
Evening both. We’re putting the band back together! ?
Shame about Welbeck leaving…
Not much call for a kazoo player in a band like this, sadly.
Appears to have been his decision, although I suspect he was probably offered a pay as you play deal given his injury record. He will do better. No legend, but a great third option up front. Shame but not a disaster. Good luck and thank you, Dan Dan.
Evening H
I must say,i have been impressed by V and R, if they can walk the walk as well as they talk the talk,then hopefully come early August with a few shiny new additions to the first team squad,we will be looking forward to the new season with plenty of optimism.
A man can hope can’t he. ??
We are as one, Clive. I hope all is well, you old Rambler, you. ??
cba from the last drinks: I’ll ask Thelonious Monk.
You’ve whetted my appetite for part two of V&S, ‘Holic.
Interesting post, Guvna. I haven’t seen the interviews yet but I am encouraged by your report and your clear optimism. Hoping for better.
All well with the Waterman clan Dave,
I trust the same can be said for you and yours,now you seem to be over the worst of your illness,although depending on how things go in Baku next Wednesday,we might both have a relapse. !!
On the subject of Baku,i had a text from my brother today,to say that not one of his big group of Arse fanatics, is going to the final.
He reckons a lot of tickets have been returned,and he has a few Chelsea mates,and none of their crew are going either.
So no idea what the numbers will be who actually are going to be there in person.
If that’s the case for the supporters of the 2 teams actually playing,
i wonder how many of the recipients of tickets handed out to corporate sponsors et al, will find a reason not to go either.
Could be a total disaster played in a half empty stadium.
Thanks all. I’m definitely better, Clive.
The last I heard we had sold around 2800 tickets, Chelsea had sold 600, and the corporates were returning them wholesale. UEFA have fucked up big time. This Final will be played in front of a Championship audience.
Those who give a shit have been well and truly crapped on by UEFA.
Thanks for the post Guvnor.
Ivan used to give a good interview
too. Basically it will come down to
whether we buy well this summer
and then whether UE can weld the
new players into a more balanced,
consistent side that wins more games.
All the good intentions and corporate
speak don’t matter.
It seems the Ramsey thing
was just Raul marking his
territory.
Would have been nice if he
could have chosen a cheaper
way to do it.
Yes H. Dan will be missed, a decent player and good pro.
I think the new guys sound like the club actually has a plan and to be fair they did last season and more or less saw it through.
?’hol
apologies for the night long waffle
but
counting cows was similar to what i was doing anyway
but thankfully it didn’t work as a nod off technique
i was sat in four layers , hat and hood up
in a cow shed providing a bit of an alarm service
for several cows that are calving
so the main man could get a night’s sleep
so
that fleshes out
the frankly already ridiculous notion
of me playing tunes on a football blog
to nobody
whilst nipping on homemade freeze distilled carrot wine
.
.
.
it takes all sorts
?
.
UP THE ARSENAL
interestingly
the first voice the calves hear is the main man’s
so it’s imprinted on them
except for one or two wee critters
over the years
who entered the world
when i was there on my own playing tunes
who i’m sure are now wandering about distraught
wondering why Joey Ramone has abandoned them
poor fella
ocd plus the wheelchair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBEubQxeW94
The headline says Poccetiny was making a joke but there doesn’t seem to be much humor of the funny kind any place in this story.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11945/11727756/mauricio-pochettino-upsets-real-madrid-with-training-base-joke
B.I.Z.A.R.R.E.
The dudes currently running Stans cash cow have got their work cut out this summer…
Cech, Ospina, Lichtsteiner, Ramsey, Welbeck are all leaving, while we have a few that could (Or is that should?) be moved on…
As well as all those potential and confirmed outgoings, Raul, Vinai and Unai will need to bring in a number of additions…
A back up GK, a 1st choice CB, LB, central midfielder and a wide forward.
That’s gonna cost in excess of 100m easy, in this crazy, obscene vulture capitalists wet dream of a society we live in (ooh, bit of politics this time of a Saturday morning?!) Plus wages and parasite (oops I mean agents) fees..
Given how we “only” have £40 million to spend apparently, that suggests we either…
Will be looking for free agents and/or kids; promoting from within from our youth ranks, recouping money by selling whoever we can get big fees for (anyone, but Leno, Laca, Lucas, Auba and the promising young players is fine with me) , or we won’t actually do so much business and Emery will keep faith with players who have let him down, shown themselves not to be up to the job…
We’ve been linked with so many players, as you’d expect… but if Emery is not backed adequately then he may well become frustrated and end up leaving before he’s had a chance to make his mark in the club. I really like him, think he is ideal to replace Wenger, but needs time and funding to do his thing!
UTA
Dexter,
Of those roles, only Nelson out
wide and possibly AMN in a CM
role seem coverable by young
players. And that would be asking
a lot of AMN. Calum as a back-up
DM might do.
I’ve heard Emi put forward as the
back-up keeper but I just can’t see
it myself.
Something’s gotta give and I’m pretty
sure it won’t be Stan.
My worst case guess is we make do and
mend with Nacho, Kos, Kola and Mus
staying in defence and just buy a wide
player. I’m hope I’m wrong.
Matt
That is a depressing as fuck scenario!!
There may be one or two surprises in terms of youth players being promoted as well as those you mention. I’ve said before, if money isn’t made available to who ever the coach is, then we should just blood the kids, play em regardless!
But that would require a shed load of patience from all involved at Araenal. So is unlikely to ever happen!
Yeah, it depressed me as I
wrote it 🙂
I like what I’ve seen of Eddie
and Willock. And I like ESR
too. Sako has been getting
rave reviews and I hope one
or two can step up. Even better
if we could suddenly produce
the next TA6 !
Dexter@22, fyi, Cech, Ospina, Lichtsteiner, Ramsey, Welbeck add up to £410,000 a week in wages. Mkhi would add £120,000 to that.
OM@23: Martinez needs to be playing regularly to learn his trade. Would he get enough games as the Cup keeper? There is also Matt Macey out on loan.
The sudden appearance of the next TA6 would actually not depress me a jot, Matt. 🙂
Ned,
Yes, I agree with you on Emi.
What worries me is that he hasn’t
been able to hold his place on
some loans.
bt8,
a nice thought isn’t it 🙂
be especially timely with this
looking like Kos’s last game for
us.
Seems Danny has gone to
Baku with the team. We’re
allowed 12 on the bench so
I expect him to nick a late
winner off his ear.
Then he, Cech and Kos can
ride off into the sunset on
a high. Course Danny would
probably fall off the horse and
injure himself. Maybe a sturdy
Ox would be safer.
Though our previous Ox wasn’t
very sturdy at all come to think
of it.
I think Holding could be our new TA6!
Matt…. you’re probably bang on the money with all that about Danny next week! Here’s hoping!
holding out for a new donkey ?
*rolls up sleeves*
Hehe!
The ballers Holding….
The barman’s Willie Young…
For those of you watching in black and white, Arsenal are wearing the purple and mustard kit…
The economics of football have changed with the amortisation of fees and the size of wages. As Ned points out the departure of several higher earners ( especially those with no resale value) will reduce our wage bill substantially and if we can replace them with players whose resale value will increase and who are on much lower value wages the financial position will improve substantially. Having said that it needs to because the club has been woefully mismanaged.
I hear strong whispers that Wednesday will see Kosclelny’s final appearance for us( I’d like him to stay for another year) but we should look to move on those who are paid more than they are worth eg, Elneny, Mustafi and Xhaka.
My sense among reasonable Gooners is that they’d love to see Generation X given a go and we might see Nelson, Saka, Smith Rowe Willock, and Ballard given promotion and others like Nketiah and Amaechi and John- Jukes given enterprising loan deals to learn their trade.
Under a Kroenke backed (haha) regime we need to aspire to a Dortmund model of spotting developing talent and selling on intelligently. A bloke called Wenger did this brilliantly for the first ten years of his tenure.
As for Wednesday the ability to field twelve on the bench makes it certain that we will see Danny Welbeck named and Im sure Saka will go as well
Tomorrow it is thirty years since Anfield 89. I’m sure all Gooners will drink a toast somewhere
Wow! Thanks TTG for the reminder
30years ago tomorrow I was in Manchester just down the road from Anfield! Listening intently on my mates car stereo as we drove down south after my 1st (bonkers) year at Uni! What an amazing and fantastically drug fuelled trip that was!!
beware of Giroud!
his blood is blue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9CgEExsxi8
Good luck to Pleguezuelo who is
off to Twente it seems.
The informative Jeorge reckons
Ballad and Medley are our aspiring
CBs. Would have a nice musical
ring to it as a partnership.
30 years and I don’t think a win
has ever meant as much since.
It’d been 18 long and mostly lean
years at the time, but then with
one sweet finish The Mighty
Arsenal were back.
Georgie Graham, I salute you
???????????
Valencia beat Barca in the Spanish
Cup. Gabriel and Coquelin started,
Tommy V was on the bench and
unused as was Umtiti (noted as
an absurd rumour of a 60m bid
by The Arsenal has surfaced).
As we beat Valencia handily and
Barca won the league, we are the
best team in Spain.
Indeed, Matt. Ballad and Medley sound like they have the potential to be quite a harmonic pairing. Can we find a Fanfare for cover?
A Fanfare at cover would be a
nice change from the Lament we
have now.
We’ve been missing the high notes
in our own aria all season 🙂
OM
Good point re Valencia. It underlines the fact that the PL is much stronger than the other European leagues. Europe won’t like the balance of power shifting but all the top teams are here now. Given the financial strength of the Premier League that is not likely to change anytime soon.
A European Super League based on football strength would look a bit Anglo-centric at present
Good luck to Julio Pleguezuelo in Holland. At 22, he needs to be kicking on in his career and hasn’t made the first-team breakthrough with us so it make sense for him to go where he thinks he will get regular football. Jorge Bird suggests there could be a large cohort of youngster’s following Pleguezuelo out the door. https://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2019/05/11/gilmour-departs-which-other-youngsters-could-leave-arsenal-this-summer/
An interesting read thanks Ned.
Sheaf, Macey and Bramell would
be the ones I knew at least
something about. Cohen was a
nice story but I imagine he and
others can all find clubs.
I had heard Macey was doing ok
at Plymouth but I’m not going to
disagree with Jeorge !
A current super league based
on revenue would be even more
lopsided.
It’s a rich mans world 🙁
I understand it’s always been a
rich mans world, I’m just moaning
about the utter predictability of
it all.
Funnily enough, the four teams that made the biggest profits in English football for 2017/18 are the four teams taking part in this week’s European finals.
Didn’t even have to lurk for
the half ton
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ned
A question
Would Bielik be considered as a home-grown player considering the age he joined at and the time he has been with us?
I don’t think we will keep Chambers and Bielik but Chambers is home-grown and balances the squad even though he would fetch in a bigger fee than Bielik. Personally I would keep both and sell Elneny and Xhaka. Chambers can cover all across the back four and in midfield .
In this flurry of activity I note Kante is expected to miss the final after getting injured in training yesterday. He will be a loss to them . If only we can nobble Hazard now!