Arsenal are reportedly keen on Marseille’s Andoni Zubizarreta.
According to L’Equipe, Arsenal are now targeting Marseille’s Andoni Zubizarreta as their new sporting director after missing out on Monchi.
The Gunners racked up another home win on Monday night, beating Newcastle United 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium to jump into the Champions League places.
Arsenal will now hope to clinch a top four place ahead of an important summer, in which they will have to be smart in the transfer market given that their rivals will have bigger budgets.
A key to that will be finding a new recruitment chief, as Sven Mislintat has moved on, and even a reunion with Unai Emery couldn’t tempt Monchi into a move to North London.
Now, L’Equipe are reporting that Arsenal want Marseille’s Zubizarreta to take the job, and he’s ‘tempted’ to make the move to the Emirates Stadium this summer.
Hits and misses
Zubizarreta is best known for his time at Barcelona, where he helped bring the likes of Javier Mascherano, Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez, Jordi Alba, Neymar, Ivan Rakitic, Luis Suarez and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen to the Camp Nou.
Those were his hits, but his misses were bad. Real bad. He bizarrely signed both Thomas Vermaelen and Alex Song from Arsenal. Even Gunners fans were bemused by those deals, so it’s no shock that they didn’t work out.
At Marseille, he has signed some stars such as Dimitri Payet, Morgan Sanson, Luiz Gustavo, Kevin Strootman and Mario Balotelli, helping them finish fourth last season and reach the Europa League final.
There’s certainly enough to be encouraged about if Zubizarreta lands the job, and given that he’s already ‘tempted’, he may well be Arsenal’s man.
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