Arsenal have made significant changes to the club’s structure in the past three-plus years which has led them to a significant upturn in competitiveness and has them competing this season for the Premier League title. The most major of all of course being the appointment of Mikel Arteta as head coach and now manager with, prior to the Spaniard's arrival, Edu Gaspar being made technical director and has now since become the sporting director.
In March, owner Stan Kroenke and his son and club director Josh Kroenke became Co-Chairs of the Arsenal board whilst Tim Lewis was appointed the Executive Vice-Chair. Vinai Venkatesham had already become CEO having previously been the managing director with former Head of Football Raul Sanllehi leaving the club in 2020 alongside a huge number of redundancies.
Scouts have been brought in to analyse talent both in the UK and abroad. All the changes have occurred and had a direct impact on the club’s success.
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However, with a critical summer transfer window on the horizon, there is more change afoot. According to The Athletic, Jason Ayto, who was the recruitment coordinator, has been appointed assistant sporting director and James Ellis, former UK first-team scout, promoted to head of recruitment. Ellis’ work in UK-based scouting has seen a number of Premier League-based transfers become more common at the club since he arrived in the summer of 2021.
Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Leandro Trossard and Jorginho have all arrived in that time. Transfers from fellow Premier League sides had been relatively absent from the club’s transfer policy under both Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery.
Meanwhile with Ayto moving to work closer with Edu, perhaps there will be greater efficiency in outgoings at the club. Edu has been criticised by supporters for not securing better deals for players leaving the team with many being paid off to terminate their contracts, something Edu himself told football.london he saw as ‘investments.’
The enormity of the summer window is not lost on anyone in or outside of the club. If Arsenal want to maintain their status as a side aiming to continue to challenge Manchester City then they need to upgrade several areas of the squad.
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