The sudden departure of Arsenal’s head of football, Raul Sanllehi, has certainly made the summer a lot more interesting and instead of Gunners’ fans tuning into Sky sports for news of any transfer dealings, they can ponder the circumstances leading up to the swift and muted departure of Raul Sanllehi.
The axe fell on the Spaniard following Arsenal’s worst position in the Premier League for 25 years and in most cases, that would have been enough to see his exit. However, rushed explanations of streamlining aren’t holding up under scrutiny with Sanllehi performing his usual duties right up until the signature of former Chelsea midfielder Willian.
Arsenal’s statement was the usual textbook ‘thank you for your hard work’, but the timing of his exit also coincides with a dramatic internal review of the Nicolas Pepe transfer which cost a rather inflated £72m. This meant that even with a deposit of around £20.5m, Arsenal were locked into a 5-year repayment plan for a player who was only valued at £40.5m.
This move was rubber-stamped by Sanllehi even though Unai Emery preferred Wilfred Zaha. In reality, a lot of the players that Emery wanted never arrived because the Spanish coach was fed players by either Sanllehi or Mislintat.
Sven Mislintat decided to part company with the club when Sanllehi decided against making him the club’s technical director and then involved himself in the player’s transfers via agents. This led to Mislintat declaring that Arsenal were a ‘mess’ and by adding that they were ‘dysfunctional’ and had ‘no clear plan’.
The puzzle pieces were all starting to fall into place and instead of Raul Sanllehi leading the club into the promised land, he wasted vast sums of money in what a club source referred to as “Empire building”. He began assuming control of football matters usually at odds with his position, which encroached on the roles on others including the coaching staff. A source close to the club said:
“It’s not been a happy time at the club over the last few years and something had to change.”
Asked if the departure came as a shock, the source said:
“No one had any idea that this was happening, no one.”
So, as we await a more realistic version of events, we can only speculate as to why Arsenal have parted company with Sanllehi. Could it be to placate the fans and players because of the recent redundancies? I don’t think so.
My first thought is to quote from an article I did before the season restarted:
“Let’s say the football season reboots and Arteta gets back to trying to build a competitive side, how long will it be before he collides with Raul Sanllehi over transfer targets and wants more control than he is allowed because, make no mistake, Raul Sanllehi calls the shots at Arsenal.”
“It’s probably no coincidence that he is referred to by some as ‘The Don’ and it will come as no surprise that there was a conflict between Emery, Mislintat and Sanllehi over the various choices and ultimately who had the final say.”
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It’s an interesting thought because Arsenal’s farewell blurb contained no mention of where the Spaniard was heading, none of the usual ‘by mutual consent’ within the body of the official statement, which tends to the theory that the departure of Raul Sanllehi was sudden.
