Raul Sanhelli leaves; Vinai Venkatesham now leads the club

by Jay29 Sat Aug 15, 2020 1:25 pm

https://www.arsenal.com/news/club-update

We are announcing today that head of football Raul Sanllehi is leaving the club and Vinai Venkatesham, our current managing director, will lead us going forward.

In a statement on behalf of our owners, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, Stan and Josh Kroenke said: “Raul has made a big contribution during his time with us and will always be part of the Arsenal family. We thank him for all his hard work and expertise and wish him every future success.

“We have no doubt that Vinai is the right person to take the club forward. He has shown outstanding leadership during the current crisis and is held in high regard internally and externally. We know everyone will rally round him so we can move forward successfully.”

Vinai, who has been at Arsenal since 2010, said: “I am thankful to Stan, Josh and the rest of the Arsenal Board for their trust in me. I will miss working closely with my colleague and friend Raul, but I am looking forward to this new challenge.

“There is much work to do to return Arsenal to the top of the game where we belong, which is what our fans rightly demand. While this will not happen overnight, I believe we have many of the critical ingredients to do so. There are many positives to build on across the club.

“While football faces uncertainties ahead as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, I am confident Arsenal will emerge strongly and look forward with confidence."

Raul, who joined us from Barcelona, said: “I’m proud and pleased with the contribution I’ve made at Arsenal over the past three years, and look forward to enjoying the club’s future success. Arsenal is a true footballing institution.

"I am proud to have been part of its history and I thank Stan and Josh Kroenke for this opportunity. Working with Vinai, we have built a top team for the future. Mikel has made an extremely positive impact since his arrival and has formed a strong team with our technical director, Edu.

"The academy is in very safe hands with Per, and Huss Fahmy is a talented and highly-capable leader of our football operations. Personally, I now look forward to taking some time off and spending time with family and friends before setting to work on a new challenge and cheering Arsenal on to great things.”

We'll await what the journos have to say but this is out of the blue.

Venkatesham was the commercial director turned managing director. He took care of the business side of the club while Sanllehi was in charge of football matters. Now it seems Venkatesham will be looking after football matters as well, which is odd, because his background is strictly business.

Perhaps Edu is looking after the football side now?

Can we go more than two years without some structural shake-up ffs.

This is speculation, but there was a report from ESPN the other day about an internal investigation into Pepe's transfer fee. The report stressed there was no problem with the player himself, but the fee paid was regarded as stupidly high by many in the game. Sanllehi presided over that transfer.

In addition, the club has signed staff and players due to Sanllehi's connections. Remember how Emery suddenly appeared when it looked like Arteta was going to get the job post-Wenger? Apparently another agent friend of Sanllehi's pushed that. And this isn't me bashing Emery again, but a lot about that appointment was off. Emery spoke no English, had a dubious record managing top clubs, had problems man managing big players, and his tactics weren't compatible with the club's ethos. After a dodgy first year, there was talk of a new contract...

So it's possible a number of questionable decisions has caught up with him and he's been encouraged to leave.

by El Gunner Sat Aug 15, 2020 1:43 pm

well then if all those speculations are indeed true, and i believe where there is smoke there is fire, and ultimately i'm glad this was resolved. Perhaps the timing of it all is unfortunate, granted this supposed to be a big transfer window for us (hopefully it still be, fingers crossed) but, you mess with the American's money, you don't get away with it!

by Jay29 Sat Aug 15, 2020 1:49 pm

Some journo tweets:

Mark Mann-Bryans (PA Sport): Understand that, with Raul gone all technical decisions will be taken by Mikel Arteta and Edu. Vinai Venkatesham remains MD and part of the decision to part company with Sanllehi was to have one clear voice at the top.

James Benge (Football London): To confirm, Sanllehi's departure is immediate and Vinai Venkatesham will move into a role akin to what Ivan Gazidis' was. Kroenkes and the board believe in current climate it is important that the club have one leader. No job titles will change, transfer plans will remain in place with recruitment now headed up by Edu and Arteta.

Also, this was reported by a guy pretending to be a gerbil on Twitter. Not kidding:

https://twitter.com/Gerbyfootball/status/1294265258283016200?s=20

EDIT: A new name you might be seeing around - Tim Lewis, trusted lawyer of the Kroenkes. Was appointed to the board in July.

https://www.arsenal.com/news/tim-lewis-appointed-arsenal-boards

by Hapless_Hans Sat Aug 15, 2020 1:53 pm

This rodent is a must follow, quite apparently

by Jay29 Sat Aug 15, 2020 2:06 pm

Simon Collings (Evening Standard): Further to this [earlier Tweet from Mann-Bryans], understand part of rationale behind Vinai as leader is his business and financial expertise. This will be a tough time for Arsenal - and all football clubs for that matter - so someone with his expertise leading the club will be important.

In terms of new structure - Edu and Arteta will identify targets. Huss Fahmy will go out and get deals done.

Huss Fahmy is practically the only survivor from Gazidis' big recruitment drive post-Wenger.

by RealGunner Sat Aug 15, 2020 2:21 pm

Jay29 wrote:Some journo tweets:

Mark Mann-Bryans (PA Sport): Understand that, with Raul gone all technical decisions will be taken by Mikel Arteta and Edu. Vinai Venkatesham remains MD and part of the decision to part company with Sanllehi was to have one clear voice at the top.

James Benge (Football London): To confirm, Sanllehi's departure is immediate and Vinai Venkatesham will move into a role akin to what Ivan Gazidis' was. Kroenkes and the board believe in current climate it is important that the club have one leader. No job titles will change, transfer plans will remain in place with recruitment now headed up by Edu and Arteta.

Also, this was reported by a guy pretending to be a gerbil on Twitter. Not kidding:

https://twitter.com/Gerbyfootball/status/1294265258283016200?s=20

EDIT: A new name you might be seeing around - Tim Lewis, trusted lawyer of the Kroenkes. Was appointed to the board in July.

https://www.arsenal.com/news/tim-lewis-appointed-arsenal-boards

I actually agree with this. I said it before, there is no need for 4-5 people doing the same job. I have always been an advocate of managers having the power to make technical decisions. Arteta should not just be a coach but someone who identifies targets and tells clubs who he wants. Accepting or rejecting players etc.

by Jay29 Sat Aug 15, 2020 2:37 pm

I cba to get all the dates, but all of this has happened since Gazidis' infamous "catalyst for change" line:

- Huss Fahmy (contract negotiator), Darren Burgess (head of high performance), Sven Mislintat (head of recruitment) and Raul Sanllehi (head of "football relations") are hired
- Arsene Wenger leaves
- A panel of Sanllehi, Mislintat and Gazidis pick Unai Emery as his replacement
- Gazidis pisses off to Milan
- Sanllehi becomes head of football, Vinai Venkatesham becomes managing director
- The head of StatDNA leaves
- Edu is hired as technical director
- Mislintat leaves as he was promised the TD position by Gazidis but didn't get it
- Francis Cagigao, formerly chief scout, becomes head of recruitment
- Burgess is binned for some reason
- Emery is sacked
- Ljungberg is caretaker manager
- Arteta is hired
- Tim Lewis, a lawyer specialising in reorganisations, joins the board
- Cagigao, amongst other scouts, are let go
- Sanllehi leaves; Venkatesham now in sole charge
- Now Arteta and Edu are in charge of identifying players and Huss Fahmy does the deals

It looks like someone (I gonna assume this Lewis guy) has looked at how the club is operating, has decided there are way too many people there, and has recommended streamlining. This is the result.

Recruitment used to be Sanllehi, Vinai, Edu, StatDNA guy, Fahmy, Cagigao and Arteta. Now it's just Vinai (money guy), Fahmy (contracts and negotiating), Edu and Arteta (who identify the targets). Presumably, Edu represents all the scouts and analysts in this process.

I'm just speculating, but in the past it seemed there were too many opinions on any given target, or some people were being ignored because agents were cutting out the scouts/analysts.

by RealGunner Sat Aug 15, 2020 2:44 pm

What is 'head of high performance' lol? they probably realised they are paying 100k or something for nothing.

I'm just speculating, but in the past it seemed there were too many opinions on any given target, or some people were being ignored because agents were cutting out the scouts/analysts.

This seems to be it. All of those probably wanted to bring their own agents into the mix. Probably a lot of disagreement amongst each other. But who decided an overhaul? Josh?

Kroenke family is business first and sports 2nd. It's possible this was more of a business decision to justify 55 odd redundancies. But it worked out well. The only downside is that Raul did have a lot of connections and managed to get us Ceballos on a loan for example. Pepe was probably worth 40-50m but it is quite possible he will justify his purchase in the future. Not sure how much that was Raul but i hope Edu has the same pull.

by El Gunner Sat Aug 15, 2020 2:55 pm

I'm sure Edu already has connections, but as he is the leader of transfer dealings now, he'll have to step up his game and build a good team of scouts/analysts around.

Like RG i think this is best. Arteta and Edu know the club, and they'll work well together to identify targets. Just hope this doesn't set us back too much in regards to transfers this window.

by Jay29 Sat Aug 15, 2020 3:00 pm

What is 'head of high performance' lol? they probably realised they are paying 100k or something for nothing.

He was a fitness guy, basically. He was supposed to come in and help the team get super fit and injury-resistant. Don't think it worked. Laughing

This seems to be it. All of those probably wanted to bring their own agents into the mix. Probably a lot of disagreement amongst each other. But who decided an overhaul? Josh?

Kroenke family is business first and sports 2nd. It's possible this was more of a business decision to justify 55 odd redundancies. But it worked out well. The only downside is that Raul did have a lot of connections and managed to get us Ceballos on a loan for example. Pepe was probably worth 40-50m but it is quite possible he will justify his purchase in the future. Not sure how much that was Raul but i hope Edu has the same pull.

Probably Josh Kroenke, yeah. KSE may be hands off but they have him and now Lewis on the board so they know what's going on at the club. Changes were in the pipeline already - the pandemic sped things up.

KSE are a lot of things, but they have made moves to protect their investment in Arsenal. First buying the club's debt so they can control the interest repayments and now streamlining the club's staff so it can survive the pandemic. On the business end they're more involved than we realise... they just don't pay out for transfers, because self-sustainability and all that.

Like RG i think this is best. Arteta and Edu know the club, and they'll work well together to identify targets. Just hope this doesn't set us back too much in regards to transfers this window.

Seems like this window's business is already set so this recent turmoil shouldn't affect it too much.

by Twoism Sat Aug 15, 2020 3:23 pm

We need more details, if this is long time coming and KSE was planning all along ( the scout department cut timing and this might suggest some real restructure in play) or this has something to do with shady pay cut or Pepe deal investigation. One thing for sure Ozil outlive Raul and having a last laugh.

by RealGunner Sat Aug 15, 2020 3:29 pm

This is probably highly sensationalised but interesting

I've seen a lot of Arsenal fans on here spamming Don Raul all throughout the summer. There are still who believe he's the correct man to take us forward. What do we really know about this man? Nothing.
So here's a thread about the career of Don Raul.
— (@aubamebangbang) December 16, 2019

by Eman Sat Aug 15, 2020 5:33 pm

Whenever someone in a management position leaves, it's tricky because we really have no way of knowing exactly why. I am sure that there are a number of reasons, and you guys have noted speculative reasons why already, but we'll never know the full truth and be able to properly conclude on if this is a good or bad thing until years after the fact. I thought that Raul was doing a good job as the main guy driving change in the club, but maybe that wasn't the case. If Raul was making poor decisions and there were too many decision makers, then fair play, it may be the right thing to do but we can't really know as fans.

My main worry is all of the turmoil that the club has undergone in recent years though...we have completely changed our management team from top to bottom, as Jay said. No business is going to be able to do that and just easily continue to move forward without significant pain and challenges. The pandemic causing us to restructure again is a valid reason, but I pray that we don't just do this same shit in a couple of years again and move forward as a club without a clear identity and gameplan for the foreseeable future. We need some true continuity to work on our vision of the future.

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Raul Sanhelli leaves; Vinai Venkatesham now leads the club

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