EXCLUSIVE
GUNNED
Mr Arsenal Tony Adams has taken aim at transfer chiefs Edu and Raul Sanllehi in an extraordinary outburst about the club’s dreadful recruitment.
The Gunners legend was a special guest on Friday’s talkSPORT Breakfast and admitted he had to make his feelings public, saying the pair are ‘out of their depth’ at the Emirates Stadium.
4
Former Barcelona director of football Sanllehi was appointed as Arsenal’s head of football following the departure of Ivan Gazidis in 2018.
He was then joined by former Arsenal player Edu, who became technical director in July 2019, and the pair have been in control of transfers at the north London club ever since.
But Adams has hammered both men for the club’s poor signings since they took change.
He also accused them of ‘blowing up’ the club’s scouting and transfer network that took 40 years to build by former chief scout Steve Rowley, which was responsible for the signing of a host of the club’s legendary stars.
4
After more than 30 years of service to the club, Rowley stepped down in 2017 as part of a series of major changes implemented by former CEO Gazidis to pave the way for a new era following Arsene Wenger’s departure.
And Adams believes the club has never been the same since they ‘dropped a bomb’ on the experienced recruitment chief’s work.
"My fundamental issue is with recruitment,” the former Gunners captain told Alan Brazil and former teammate Ray Parlour on talkSPORT.
“I think the club is going through such a recruitment issue at the moment.
“Relying on agents is not the way to go. It's not Arsenal DNA I'm afraid. I don’t like it. I've got to say it publicly.
4
“We’ve got Edu and Raul Sanllehi who are running the show and, you know as well as I do Ray, Steve Rowley took 40 years to build that scouting system and 13 scouts have been sacked.
“They’ve put a bomb on it.
“Steve’s network, it did absolutely brilliantly, it got the best players from around the world into the club and into our own academy, and it's just been blown up.
“Edu, I love him. He's a beautiful man, a lovely man and it's not personal, but he has no experience of building European squads.
“Even Raul Sanllehi, he came from Barcelona where all the money in the world, but it doesn’t look like he's going to get money here!
“Those people are kind of out of their depth, I'm sorry.
“They need to build a fantastic squad that challenges for the league, and it hurts.”
However, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has responded to Adams' outburst by coming out in support of Sanllehi and Edu.
4
“I have full faith,” he said.
"I have a really good relationship with Raul, with Edu, with Vinai (Venkatesham, managing director) and direct contact with the owners.
“We know what we want to do. That's not the issue, for sure.
“There are many different aspects. Obviously the financial one, depending on where we finish, is one. Depending on the future of a few players and obviously depending on the transfer market.
“We don't know the type of transfer market we are going to find. It is something unique, it never happened and there are a lot of question marks around that."