Unai Emery offered a glaring insight into the power structure at Arsenal last month.
The former Gunners’ head coach revealed that he had wanted Wilfried Zaha and instead the club signed Nicolas Pepe [Goal].
If true, it confirmed that Emery wasn’t pulling any strings on the transfer front, but could things be different with Mikel Arteta at the helm?
Arteta, like Emery, has the role of head coach in North London but it looks like the former Arsenal midfielder might have a little more power in regards to transfers than his predecessor.
Here’s what Edu, Arsenal’s technical director, told The Telegraph today about Pablo Mari: “With Pablo we’re all disappointed he got injured at Manchester City. Since Mikel arrived here he was asking for a central defender who was left-footed. We were really pleased with Pablo – his behaviour, the way he is training, his mentality and his quality.”
The interesting thing here is that it looks like Arteta does have a big say on transfers if he’s specifically telling Edu what sort of player he wants in his squad.
And this is definitely the way forward for Arsenal, because another voice is desperately needed when it comes to transfer talk at the Emirates Stadium.
David Luiz, who has just signed a new contract, might not have been recruited if Emery was on the committee last summer and it’s important that Arteta has a bigger role on such issues.
After all, he’s the one who’s going to be fired if the players signed by Edu and Raul Sanllehi help the club go backwards instead of forwards.
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