We are about to find out if the recruitment of Andrea Berta is going to work. Who is he and what makes him qualified to work at a top football team? The latter is easy to answer, he worked for 12 years at Atletico Madrid who would certainly be comparable to Arsenal in terms of trophies won and football standing. Their ground is bigger than the Emirates although watch this space, the Emirates may be about to get bigger. While there, Berta was regarded as one of the best recruiters in Europe with Antoine Griezmann, Jan Oblak, Rodri, and João Félix among his most notable captures. He is notable for finding superstars before they become superstars and that will certainly suit Arsenal who never like buying expensive talent.
A player of the calibre of Griezemann would be perfect
The crucial aspect to Berta is that he is not a football man. He is a businessman and financial expert who moved into football because of a love for it. He understands money as he is a former bank manager. This is critical as it is vey difficult for a football man to understand these complex issues. Footballers get everything done for them and can concentrate on football but then how do they make the transition to being a dealmaker without the training necessary to succeed at the huge financial world of the modern footballer? The agents, the financial experts, the sharks, even the conmen who inhabit the rarified world of football finance need a thorough education in how that world works if they are to succeed. I believe Berta is proof that a footballer will struggle to learn enough to become a director of football.
There is a huge amount of elements to coordinate
What do they have to do? They have to oversee the team of scouts, and assessors who go with their laptops to matches to compile statistics on their targets. The football scouts assess the physical attributes and the IT guys press buttons every time a player does anything, make a run, receive or give a pass, score a goal, make a tackle and so on. A picture is built up of what a player is capable of. That can be used to compare players to the players already at Arsenal. Of course if it is a different league, allowances must be made for that. The football director must be capable of organizing and liaising with the worldwide team who perform these functions. They must be good with people.
Rodri was another big success
Then they must be able to be capable of creating and building networks with the armies of agents, advisors, families, legal and financial experts who surround players and become a wall to overcome if a player is to sign. If anyone of these become opposed to a move it can be hard to make a deal happen. Football has moved on dramatically from the days when managers handled everything.
Everyone must trust in their abilities
The other area is to be trusted by the clubs and their owners and financial people so that they can trust the director of football to make the correct moves so that a deal can be struck. A knowledge of a particular clubs financial status regarding fair play rules means they can structure a deal to suit their finances in the future.
Persuading the Kroenkes to part with hundreds of millions is a big part of Berta's job
But critically, they must work well with the army of staff within a large club such as Arsenal. The owners must trust them as they will be advising the owners to fork out hundreds of millions for players. They must also endeavour to get the maximum from sales of players. The next most important person is the manager. In this case Mikel Arteta. Now, it has long been my contention that Edu’s move came about because of the failure to identify and bring to Arsenal a top striker. I suspect that Edu and Arteta did not agree on who that footballer could be, or if they did, that Edu could not make a deal work to land the player. I could be wrong but we have now brought in a financial expert, not a football one and I suspect that is significant.
A football decision has to be the final one
Surely Arteta has to be the final arbiter? He would know what he wants and there are not many talents out there for a team who aspires to be the best in the world, and winning the Premier League or Champions League puts you in that bracket. You need the best players in all positions, and a Bendtner or a Nketiah were not such. I am sure Arteta knows who he would like and who he would like Berta to get.
Jan Oblak is another world class capture
Berta speaks Spanish and I believe is, despite being Italian, a part of the increasingly Spanish personnel which Arteta has been building at Arsenal. As Spanish teams are the masters of European football, this is no bad thing. But can he work with Arteta? Well, he was successful with Diego Simeone, who is known as one of the toughest managers in football. Arteta does not have the hard image of the Argentinian but has he an inner steel? His treatment of certain star players and possibly Edu, suggests that he insists that they deliver or they go.
The football man and the money man
On the face of it, Berta and Arteta are a match made in heaven. A guy with a proven record in getting deals over the line alongside a guy who needs the right sort of players. As always, since I have been an Arsenal supporter, we keep hearing of deals but so many never happen. Maradona and Platini were among the laughable ones in the past. As I am writing, we don’t seem to have bought any significant player yet, and even Zubimendi seems to have stalled. We will find out soon enough if Berta is the man for us. The question is, if he isn’t, then who?
Joao Felix is another wonderful player for Berta
I truly believe that it is asking an awful lot of a former player, in the modern scenario, to have the financial acumen, knowledge, networks and ability of a trained financial professional to be capable of making deals at the top level. It is people such as Berta who will fulfill such roles. It will be up to the football people, in this case, Arteta and his team, to ensure that the right targets are identified, and it will be their job to persuade them of the football rightness of the move and the director’s job to work with all the different elements, the clubs, the agents, the families, etc. to bring everything to a successful conclusion. Such deals are a small handful a season, involving big names, and there are also the lesser deals which can often be just as important.
If it doesn’t work, then what?
Then, once the deal has been concluded, the player must perform on the pitch. All that work must have a successful outcome. Who then is to blame if it doesn’t? The manager and their staff or the football director? The reality is that most deals must work out or the sack is inevitable for both sides. But the manager does have a reserve stream of players from the Academy to bring through, the football director does not. If the transfers are the problem, surely it is the director of football who is most vulnerable?
Arteta's must be the final decision
I feel we badly need Berta to work out. If a guy with 12 years experience at a similar club cannot land us the players we need then where can we find such a person? Andrea Berta may well prove to be the most significant buy we have made since Wenger’s time. And I fear for us if he is not.
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