sdotzdot
Established Member
This is a huge appointment. Well done Arsenal.
Andrea Berta Agrees To Join Arsenal as Sporting Director
- Thread starter Jason Jace
- Start date
- Replies 171
- Views 9,440
- Watchers 26
BBF
Established Member
Country: England
At last someone who is not learning on the job, respected in football with good contacts all over the world.
Arsenal football club if we want to go back to the top of English football let alone attempt Europe, the people at the top lay the template, we simply have not had anyone close to the Wenger Dein dynamic.
Not just the contract renewals, buying and selling of players but a vision and plan to do so.
Arsenal football club if we want to go back to the top of English football let alone attempt Europe, the people at the top lay the template, we simply have not had anyone close to the Wenger Dein dynamic.
Not just the contract renewals, buying and selling of players but a vision and plan to do so.
Red London
Anti-Simp Culture
apparently he is more for identifying talent than doing stuff such as negotiate contracts
ASAP Berg
Established Member
If I could imagine what Athleti would do, it would be to spunk 70m on Gyokeres and have him score 20+ league goals for the next 6 seasons. No brainer type move.
HattoriHanzo
Well-Known Member
Country: Croatia
The Arsenal News Show EP575 - Andrea Berta Special Ft Sid Lowe - Spanish Football Expert
Tnegs
Well-Known Member
I’d say it’s the opposite. Berta will have a long list of targets for us to sign that’s he’s accumulated over the years at Atleti and that they probably couldn’t afford to close. Now he’s at a club that generates over 50% more revenue it’s hard to imagine him not pushing for these signings to be done. I also imagine he’s not going to be a pushover like Edu was because he has a track record of winning titles at Atleti and working with a top class manager in Simeone. It will be an interesting power dynamic to watch but i would bet on Berta having made sure that he wouldn’t be sidelined like Edu was before signing the deal.
Macho
Mr Delete
Country: England
The Athletic kinda shat on Berta 
Most recent article by Dermot Corrigan making it unclear what he actually did at Athletico.
There is also earlier article from Amy Lawrence where…well read this bit for yourselves:
They were very clearly pro Ayto as well:
This Amy article is written in a similar tone to how she would write about Arsène (brought up his dismissal of directors again) and Emery.
Most recent article by Dermot Corrigan making it unclear what he actually did at Athletico.
There is also earlier article from Amy Lawrence where…well read this bit for yourselves:
They were very clearly pro Ayto as well:
This Amy article is written in a similar tone to how she would write about Arsène (brought up his dismissal of directors again) and Emery.
avenellroad
John Radford’s son
The Athletic kinda shat on Berta
Most recent article by Dermot Corrigan making it unclear what he actually did at Athletico.
View attachment 32983
View attachment 32984
There is also earlier article from Amy Lawrence where…well read this bit for yourselves:
View attachment 32981
They were very clearly pro Ayto as well:
View attachment 32982
This Amy article is written in a similar tone to how she would write about Arsène (brought up his dismissal of directors again) and Emery.
Of course sycophants like Lawrence and Corrigan will do all they can to absolve the previous suits from any blame at Arsenal.
What the club needs at this point is deals. We need to go after the best in class in certain positions to make this team work. Berta would be a conduit to getting those deals done. He’s got connections to Jorge Mendes I believe.
Macho
Mr Delete
Country: England
@Rex Stone might be able to confirm if this is the case.
These guys are basically saying Athletico is central to Berta’s whole identity which is true because I didn’t know much about him. However I doubt he’s as bad as painted here he was at Athletico for too long.
I will post both articles in full when I get a moment, maybe I’m reading it wrong.
field442
Hates Journalists Named James
The Athletic kinda shat on Berta
Most recent article by Dermot Corrigan making it unclear what he actually did at Athletico.
View attachment 32983
View attachment 32984
There is also earlier article from Amy Lawrence where…well read this bit for yourselves:
View attachment 32981
They were very clearly pro Ayto as well:
View attachment 32982
This Amy article is written in a similar tone to how she would write about Arsène (brought up his dismissal of directors again) and Emery.
I mean he does seem like a bit of a deals guy but he has also worked as a scout at some point, so there's some experience of talent evaluation. Seems like a cheap shot to compare him to Raul who was basically a businessman all his career, especially given how badly the Raul stuff turned out. Setting him up to knock him down if it goes tits up.
Macho
Mr Delete
Country: England
By Dermot Corrigan
26
Mar. 11, 2025 Updated 3:50 pm GMT
Arsenal’s incoming sporting director, Andrea Berta, spent 12 years at Atletico Madrid, a period in which they had tremendous success on the pitch and regularly conducted startling business in the transfer market.
Berta joined the Spanish club in 2013, first working in their international scouting department, but the Italian quickly climbed the ranks to become sporting director four years later.
During his time there, Atletico reached the 2014 and 2016 Champions League finals and won La Liga twice (in 2014 and 2021) under Diego Simeone, while also winning the 2013 Copa del Rey, 2014 Spanish Supercopa, 2017-18 Europa League and 2018 UEFA Super Cup.
There were also some tremendous coups in the transfer market. The signings of Antoine Griezmann from Real Sociedad for €30million in 2014, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, goalkeeper Jan Oblak for €16m from Benfica, and England defender Kieran Trippier for €20m in 2019 from Tottenham Hotspur were all undoubted successes.
The club have also regularly taken in big fees for departing players, including selling Griezmann to Barcelona for €120m, home-produced defender Lucas Hernandez to Bayern for €80m, midfielder Rodri to Manchester City for €70m and midfielder Thomas Partey to Arsenal for €50m.
Yet few around the Estadio Metropolitano have credited Berta among the key figures in those achievements on and off the pitch and he left the club in January six months before his contract was up. His relationship with Simeone and the club’s chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin had run its course.
Now the 53-year-old has reached an agreement to join Arsenal following Edu Gaspar’s resignation in November. The deal was driven by Arsenal’s managing director Richard Garlick and executive vice-chair Tim Lewis, with Josh Kroenke involved throughout on behalf of the ownership as well as input from manager Mikel Arteta.
The Athletic looks at Berta’s career so far and what Arsenal are getting…
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Berta’s exact role in the biggest decisions at Atletico was always difficult to determine. On paper, he was in charge of the club’s sporting operations, but in practice, he was not the most important voice in transfers.
Long-serving CEO Gil Marin is Atletico’s primary decision maker, keeping tight control of the purse strings and often conducting the biggest deals personally with agents and club executives he knows well, such as Portuguese agent Jorge Mendes or Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
Manager Simeone also has very clear ideas about what players he wants and was a driving force behind the arrivals in recent summers of Luis Suarez, Rodrigo De Paul and Julian Alvarez.
Berta had a say in overall squad planning, managed the club’s scouting network, and worked with agents negotiating contracts. It was also his responsibility to make sure Atletico kept within La Liga’s strict financial control rules.
A banker by trade, Berta was in his mid-twenties before he entered football to run the football operations of semi-pro team Carpenedolo in his home province of Brescia in northern Italy. With Berta’s financial nous and scouting skills backed by wealthy local businessman Tommaso Ghirardi, Carpenedolo achieved four consecutive promotions to reach Italy’s fourth tier.
When Ghirardi took over then-bankrupt Serie A team Parma in 2007, Berta went with him. A rollercoaster two seasons saw players including Bernardo Corradi, McDonald Mariga and Cristiano Lucarelli sign, but they were relegated in the first year before being promoted back to the top flight the next season. Berta left the club following the arrival of Pietro Leonardi as managing director.
During a hectic three-year spell at Genoa between 2009 and 2012, Berta made more than 50 signings in less than three years, including free transfer deals for then-veteran striker Luca Toni and signing Kevin-Prince Boateng from Portsmouth. The future Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos was sold to Milan for €4.5m, bought back 12 months later for €4m, then immediately loaned to Werder Bremen for a season, after which the Greece international joined the German club on a permanent deal for €3.5m.
Genoa survived relegation on the final day of 2011-12 having gone through three coaches that season and experienced protests from the fans. Berta left at the conclusion of that campaign and spent a year out before heading to Atletico.
The ability to conduct complex deals, and the relationships he built with agents during that time, were very useful for Berta at Atletico. He was generally very busy in every transfer window — and plenty of players (including current Premier League players Matheus Cunha, Diogo Jota and Matt Doherty) passed through the club without making much (if any) impact on Simeone’s team.
Atletico head coach Diego Simeone (Flor Tan Jun/Getty Images)
Some of the bigger deals from Berta’s time at Atletico did not work out, most obviously the €126m (£113m) club-record signing of Portuguese playmaker Joao Felix from Benfica in 2019. Joao Felix never convinced Simeone and five difficult years passed before the club finally got him off their books, selling him to Chelsea last summer for £44.5m. The €72m paid to Monaco for French winger Thomas Lemar in the summer of 2018 has also not worked out well — though both Lemar and Joao Felix are clients of Jorge Mendes, who has a very close relationship with Gil Marin, the Atletico CEO, so Berta may not have had much involvement in those two deals.
A regular complaint heard around Atletico during Berta’s time as sporting director centred on the arrival of players who were not obvious fits with Simeone’s tactical and physical requirements.
A lack of enough aggressive defenders in the Atletico squad, and the inability to secure a combative holding midfielder, was also pretty clear to many observers. Lucas Torreira’s loan from Arsenal in 2020-21 was one of many failed attempts to fill the latter role.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6188123/2025/03/09/andrea-berta-arsenal-sporting-director-2/
Simeone at times hinted publicly about his unhappiness with his squad’s balance and make-up, especially when results were not going their way.
Berta’s role within Atletico’s institutional framework was diminished in January 2024 when Carlos Bucero (previously at Real Madrid in 2006-2009 during Ramon Calderon’s presidency, then worked for Gestifute for over a decade) was appointed in a newly created role as football managing director.
That came as Gil Marin was focusing more and more on institutional affairs, such as his role as a vice-president at La Liga, UEFA and ECA (European Club Association), and the construction of a new training ground and leisure area beside the Estadio Metropolitano.
Advertisement
Bucero led Atletico’s transfer policy in the summer of 2024 as the club invested over €200m in a squad overhaul, while also successfully offloading other unwanted high earners including Alvaro Morata, Memphis Depay and Stefan Savic. Simeone was heavily involved in the signing of his fellow countryman Alvarez from Manchester City for €75m, while Gil Marin’s long relationship with Mendes was key to Joao Felix joining Chelsea and unlocking the €42m signing of Conor Gallagher.
Berta’s reduced role over the past 12 months was not so noticeable given he had always kept a very low profile. Some sporting directors at La Liga clubs are regulars on Spanish TV, before games or at UEFA competition draws, representing the team and taking questions about transfer targets or decisions. Berta rarely, if ever, spoke in public — other Atletico figures had that club spokesperson role.
Berta was contacted by The Athletic for this article but declined to comment.
Alvarez joined from Manchester City last summer (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
Departing Real Sociedad sporting director Roberto Olabe is a figure in the above mould. At La Real, he oversees the entire football department, making hiring and firing decisions and defending them in public. Olabe was among the candidates considered by Arsenal, but the club went another way.
Berta certainly has a wealth of deal-making experience and lots of useful relationships with agents and clubs across Europe and South America. During later years at Atletico, his name was regularly linked with the sporting director vacancies at clubs including Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and Milan.
Arsenal’s choice to fill the vacancy left by Edu’s departure suggests they were not looking for someone to bring their own grand vision about the type of football the team should be playing, or identify all the individual players who would put those ideas into action on the pitch.
Ahead of a critically important summer of recruitment, Berta is the man Arsenal will hope can close deals for their major targets. He’ll be supported by the club’s director of football operations, James King, in that pursuit.
Advertisement
There is more to the job than that: Arsenal are also entering a series of crucial contract negotiations. The likes of Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Gabriel all have contracts that are set to expire in 2027. Berta’s task will be as much about keeping the group together as augmenting it with external talent.
The full scope of his role is as yet unknown. Will he, like his predecessor Edu, be granted authority over Arsenal’s women’s team and charged with the integration of the academy and men’s first team?
Given the experience from Atletico, Berta’s appointment suggests others at Arsenal will continue to have the ultimate say on the biggest deals done and decisions made.
26
Mar. 11, 2025 Updated 3:50 pm GMT
Arsenal’s incoming sporting director, Andrea Berta, spent 12 years at Atletico Madrid, a period in which they had tremendous success on the pitch and regularly conducted startling business in the transfer market.
Berta joined the Spanish club in 2013, first working in their international scouting department, but the Italian quickly climbed the ranks to become sporting director four years later.
During his time there, Atletico reached the 2014 and 2016 Champions League finals and won La Liga twice (in 2014 and 2021) under Diego Simeone, while also winning the 2013 Copa del Rey, 2014 Spanish Supercopa, 2017-18 Europa League and 2018 UEFA Super Cup.
There were also some tremendous coups in the transfer market. The signings of Antoine Griezmann from Real Sociedad for €30million in 2014, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, goalkeeper Jan Oblak for €16m from Benfica, and England defender Kieran Trippier for €20m in 2019 from Tottenham Hotspur were all undoubted successes.
The club have also regularly taken in big fees for departing players, including selling Griezmann to Barcelona for €120m, home-produced defender Lucas Hernandez to Bayern for €80m, midfielder Rodri to Manchester City for €70m and midfielder Thomas Partey to Arsenal for €50m.
Yet few around the Estadio Metropolitano have credited Berta among the key figures in those achievements on and off the pitch and he left the club in January six months before his contract was up. His relationship with Simeone and the club’s chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin had run its course.
Now the 53-year-old has reached an agreement to join Arsenal following Edu Gaspar’s resignation in November. The deal was driven by Arsenal’s managing director Richard Garlick and executive vice-chair Tim Lewis, with Josh Kroenke involved throughout on behalf of the ownership as well as input from manager Mikel Arteta.
The Athletic looks at Berta’s career so far and what Arsenal are getting…
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Berta’s exact role in the biggest decisions at Atletico was always difficult to determine. On paper, he was in charge of the club’s sporting operations, but in practice, he was not the most important voice in transfers.
Long-serving CEO Gil Marin is Atletico’s primary decision maker, keeping tight control of the purse strings and often conducting the biggest deals personally with agents and club executives he knows well, such as Portuguese agent Jorge Mendes or Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
Manager Simeone also has very clear ideas about what players he wants and was a driving force behind the arrivals in recent summers of Luis Suarez, Rodrigo De Paul and Julian Alvarez.
Berta had a say in overall squad planning, managed the club’s scouting network, and worked with agents negotiating contracts. It was also his responsibility to make sure Atletico kept within La Liga’s strict financial control rules.
A banker by trade, Berta was in his mid-twenties before he entered football to run the football operations of semi-pro team Carpenedolo in his home province of Brescia in northern Italy. With Berta’s financial nous and scouting skills backed by wealthy local businessman Tommaso Ghirardi, Carpenedolo achieved four consecutive promotions to reach Italy’s fourth tier.
When Ghirardi took over then-bankrupt Serie A team Parma in 2007, Berta went with him. A rollercoaster two seasons saw players including Bernardo Corradi, McDonald Mariga and Cristiano Lucarelli sign, but they were relegated in the first year before being promoted back to the top flight the next season. Berta left the club following the arrival of Pietro Leonardi as managing director.
During a hectic three-year spell at Genoa between 2009 and 2012, Berta made more than 50 signings in less than three years, including free transfer deals for then-veteran striker Luca Toni and signing Kevin-Prince Boateng from Portsmouth. The future Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos was sold to Milan for €4.5m, bought back 12 months later for €4m, then immediately loaned to Werder Bremen for a season, after which the Greece international joined the German club on a permanent deal for €3.5m.
Genoa survived relegation on the final day of 2011-12 having gone through three coaches that season and experienced protests from the fans. Berta left at the conclusion of that campaign and spent a year out before heading to Atletico.
The ability to conduct complex deals, and the relationships he built with agents during that time, were very useful for Berta at Atletico. He was generally very busy in every transfer window — and plenty of players (including current Premier League players Matheus Cunha, Diogo Jota and Matt Doherty) passed through the club without making much (if any) impact on Simeone’s team.
Atletico head coach Diego Simeone (Flor Tan Jun/Getty Images)
Some of the bigger deals from Berta’s time at Atletico did not work out, most obviously the €126m (£113m) club-record signing of Portuguese playmaker Joao Felix from Benfica in 2019. Joao Felix never convinced Simeone and five difficult years passed before the club finally got him off their books, selling him to Chelsea last summer for £44.5m. The €72m paid to Monaco for French winger Thomas Lemar in the summer of 2018 has also not worked out well — though both Lemar and Joao Felix are clients of Jorge Mendes, who has a very close relationship with Gil Marin, the Atletico CEO, so Berta may not have had much involvement in those two deals.
A regular complaint heard around Atletico during Berta’s time as sporting director centred on the arrival of players who were not obvious fits with Simeone’s tactical and physical requirements.
A lack of enough aggressive defenders in the Atletico squad, and the inability to secure a combative holding midfielder, was also pretty clear to many observers. Lucas Torreira’s loan from Arsenal in 2020-21 was one of many failed attempts to fill the latter role.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6188123/2025/03/09/andrea-berta-arsenal-sporting-director-2/
Simeone at times hinted publicly about his unhappiness with his squad’s balance and make-up, especially when results were not going their way.
Berta’s role within Atletico’s institutional framework was diminished in January 2024 when Carlos Bucero (previously at Real Madrid in 2006-2009 during Ramon Calderon’s presidency, then worked for Gestifute for over a decade) was appointed in a newly created role as football managing director.
That came as Gil Marin was focusing more and more on institutional affairs, such as his role as a vice-president at La Liga, UEFA and ECA (European Club Association), and the construction of a new training ground and leisure area beside the Estadio Metropolitano.
Advertisement
Bucero led Atletico’s transfer policy in the summer of 2024 as the club invested over €200m in a squad overhaul, while also successfully offloading other unwanted high earners including Alvaro Morata, Memphis Depay and Stefan Savic. Simeone was heavily involved in the signing of his fellow countryman Alvarez from Manchester City for €75m, while Gil Marin’s long relationship with Mendes was key to Joao Felix joining Chelsea and unlocking the €42m signing of Conor Gallagher.
Berta’s reduced role over the past 12 months was not so noticeable given he had always kept a very low profile. Some sporting directors at La Liga clubs are regulars on Spanish TV, before games or at UEFA competition draws, representing the team and taking questions about transfer targets or decisions. Berta rarely, if ever, spoke in public — other Atletico figures had that club spokesperson role.
Berta was contacted by The Athletic for this article but declined to comment.
Alvarez joined from Manchester City last summer (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
Departing Real Sociedad sporting director Roberto Olabe is a figure in the above mould. At La Real, he oversees the entire football department, making hiring and firing decisions and defending them in public. Olabe was among the candidates considered by Arsenal, but the club went another way.
Berta certainly has a wealth of deal-making experience and lots of useful relationships with agents and clubs across Europe and South America. During later years at Atletico, his name was regularly linked with the sporting director vacancies at clubs including Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and Milan.
Arsenal’s choice to fill the vacancy left by Edu’s departure suggests they were not looking for someone to bring their own grand vision about the type of football the team should be playing, or identify all the individual players who would put those ideas into action on the pitch.
Ahead of a critically important summer of recruitment, Berta is the man Arsenal will hope can close deals for their major targets. He’ll be supported by the club’s director of football operations, James King, in that pursuit.
Advertisement
There is more to the job than that: Arsenal are also entering a series of crucial contract negotiations. The likes of Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Gabriel all have contracts that are set to expire in 2027. Berta’s task will be as much about keeping the group together as augmenting it with external talent.
The full scope of his role is as yet unknown. Will he, like his predecessor Edu, be granted authority over Arsenal’s women’s team and charged with the integration of the academy and men’s first team?
Given the experience from Atletico, Berta’s appointment suggests others at Arsenal will continue to have the ultimate say on the biggest deals done and decisions made.
By Amy Lawrence
Mar. 9, 2025
In the four months between Edu’s exit and Andrea Berta’s imminent arrival, it has been clear that Arsenal have reached a sporting-director crossroads. Do they stick or twist? Do they value continuity and a known and trusted colleague who stepped into the role and promote Edu’s former deputy Jason Ayto, or do they shake up the scene and bring a flash of new impetus from outside?
Edu ended up ticking a lot of boxes — competency in the role, an Arsenal background and stature from his playing career that gave him clout when talking to everyone, be it players, families, agents or officials.
It is not easy to replicate that in every way, so Arsenal had to go off in one direction or another. What would they value more? Personal connections and loyalty to act in the best interests of the club’s culture? The capacity to be aggressive and bring a different spark to the competitive environment of the transfer market?
The verdict that brings them to Berta provides a strong answer as to their priority.
Mikel Arteta has given this decision his blessing. Perhaps it feels like a crunch time of sorts for his time as Arsenal manager. After nearly five and a half years in the job, building a team to get close to trophies, he may well feel he needs to push hard for the pieces of the puzzle that could unlock silverware to add to the FA Cup of his 2019-20 debut season.
It is Ayto’s nature to work in a calm, considered way for the long-term health of the club. Berta brings decisions for now, for instant impact.
Berta is a connections guy, a deals guy. His work, particularly at Atletico Madrid, is central to his reputation. He brings a brash confidence, a new outlook and his own way of doing things. He appears to be more from the Raul Sanllehi school than the Edu one.
It is worth remembering the whole idea of having a transfer strategy overlord is still relatively new in the club’s experience. Arsenal have had only two established sporting/technical directors. Arsène Wenger was scathing about the very idea of such a role while he was the manager. “Is it someone who stands on the road and directs the players left and right? I never understand what it means, ‘director of football’,” he once said. So it was only once his reign ended, almost seven years ago now, that Arsenal had the structure to put one in.
Sanllehi was the first, but his tenure was marked by some debatable spending and he left suddenly once the club’s owners were in the process of scrutinising all elements of the running of the club. Edu was the next. Although some were initially sceptical, given his age and lack of experience in the European corridors of transfer power, the Brazilian was a key part of the recalibration of Arsenal which made them competitive at the top end of English football again.
Edu left his role with Arsenal in November (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Critical, now, is the question of how Berta connects with the other major figures at the club involved in recruitment and contracts.
Arsenal will not just suddenly give him the keys to the war-chest and tell him to go off and do what his heart desires in terms of signings. The role of technical director may come with a cultish aura that they are the kingmakers in terms of bringing in players, but in reality there are a group of stakeholders within a club such as Arsenal who collectively have a say in the pursuit of talent.
All their major transfers involve Arteta as well as senior figures in the hierarchy including the administrative experience of Richard Garlick and James King, and require the buy-in and sign-off from the owners, with Josh Kroenke involved in key decisions.
Since Edu’s sudden departure, Ayto has been quietly running the show. Now we’re in March and the club are well along the path of summer 2025 planning, he has been working on various deals, so there is the potentially awkward situation of Berta coming in midway through delicate negotiations. How that impacts player agents and contractual nuances remains to be seen.
Berta has a multitude of things to get into fast.
As well as pushing through important new signings for the summer, there are a raft of vital contract extensions for players who are invaluable to Arsenal — Bukayo Saka, Gabriel, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli are among those approaching the point when they have two years remaining on their current deals, and improved terms for youngsters Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly are imperative.
There is also the matter of trying to get better at generating profits by selling at the right time and for high fees — something the club have not generally excelled at. It will also be interesting to see how Berta, and Arsenal, manage the fact that overseeing the women’s team and the academy is also part of the job’s remit.
Ayto was made a scapegoat for the dry January which had a clear impact on Arsenal’s inability to keep up with Liverpool in the Premier League’s title race.
The absence of a goalscoring addition during the winter window to compensate for the tranche of injuries to their forward line was a costly mistake. But the decision to gamble and not sign somebody was not one that sits squarely on Ayto’s shoulders. As a recruitment department, backed by the manager’s tastes and the owners’ control of the budget, it was apparent Arsenal did not seriously pursue players who did move in January to good subsequent effect (hello, Marco Asensio).
Again, such is the club’s financial position, Berta will not suddenly be given mega-millions to play with. He will have to work within their remit to strengthen ambitiously but carefully, if that is not too much of a contradiction.
Arsenal put a lot of resources into the search for their Edu successor. They will be hoping this speedier and possibly bumpier road is the right one for them to hurtle down.
Mar. 9, 2025
In the four months between Edu’s exit and Andrea Berta’s imminent arrival, it has been clear that Arsenal have reached a sporting-director crossroads. Do they stick or twist? Do they value continuity and a known and trusted colleague who stepped into the role and promote Edu’s former deputy Jason Ayto, or do they shake up the scene and bring a flash of new impetus from outside?
Edu ended up ticking a lot of boxes — competency in the role, an Arsenal background and stature from his playing career that gave him clout when talking to everyone, be it players, families, agents or officials.
It is not easy to replicate that in every way, so Arsenal had to go off in one direction or another. What would they value more? Personal connections and loyalty to act in the best interests of the club’s culture? The capacity to be aggressive and bring a different spark to the competitive environment of the transfer market?
The verdict that brings them to Berta provides a strong answer as to their priority.
Mikel Arteta has given this decision his blessing. Perhaps it feels like a crunch time of sorts for his time as Arsenal manager. After nearly five and a half years in the job, building a team to get close to trophies, he may well feel he needs to push hard for the pieces of the puzzle that could unlock silverware to add to the FA Cup of his 2019-20 debut season.
It is Ayto’s nature to work in a calm, considered way for the long-term health of the club. Berta brings decisions for now, for instant impact.
Berta is a connections guy, a deals guy. His work, particularly at Atletico Madrid, is central to his reputation. He brings a brash confidence, a new outlook and his own way of doing things. He appears to be more from the Raul Sanllehi school than the Edu one.
It is worth remembering the whole idea of having a transfer strategy overlord is still relatively new in the club’s experience. Arsenal have had only two established sporting/technical directors. Arsène Wenger was scathing about the very idea of such a role while he was the manager. “Is it someone who stands on the road and directs the players left and right? I never understand what it means, ‘director of football’,” he once said. So it was only once his reign ended, almost seven years ago now, that Arsenal had the structure to put one in.
Sanllehi was the first, but his tenure was marked by some debatable spending and he left suddenly once the club’s owners were in the process of scrutinising all elements of the running of the club. Edu was the next. Although some were initially sceptical, given his age and lack of experience in the European corridors of transfer power, the Brazilian was a key part of the recalibration of Arsenal which made them competitive at the top end of English football again.
Edu left his role with Arsenal in November (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Critical, now, is the question of how Berta connects with the other major figures at the club involved in recruitment and contracts.
Arsenal will not just suddenly give him the keys to the war-chest and tell him to go off and do what his heart desires in terms of signings. The role of technical director may come with a cultish aura that they are the kingmakers in terms of bringing in players, but in reality there are a group of stakeholders within a club such as Arsenal who collectively have a say in the pursuit of talent.
All their major transfers involve Arteta as well as senior figures in the hierarchy including the administrative experience of Richard Garlick and James King, and require the buy-in and sign-off from the owners, with Josh Kroenke involved in key decisions.
Since Edu’s sudden departure, Ayto has been quietly running the show. Now we’re in March and the club are well along the path of summer 2025 planning, he has been working on various deals, so there is the potentially awkward situation of Berta coming in midway through delicate negotiations. How that impacts player agents and contractual nuances remains to be seen.
Berta has a multitude of things to get into fast.
As well as pushing through important new signings for the summer, there are a raft of vital contract extensions for players who are invaluable to Arsenal — Bukayo Saka, Gabriel, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli are among those approaching the point when they have two years remaining on their current deals, and improved terms for youngsters Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly are imperative.
There is also the matter of trying to get better at generating profits by selling at the right time and for high fees — something the club have not generally excelled at. It will also be interesting to see how Berta, and Arsenal, manage the fact that overseeing the women’s team and the academy is also part of the job’s remit.
Ayto was made a scapegoat for the dry January which had a clear impact on Arsenal’s inability to keep up with Liverpool in the Premier League’s title race.
The absence of a goalscoring addition during the winter window to compensate for the tranche of injuries to their forward line was a costly mistake. But the decision to gamble and not sign somebody was not one that sits squarely on Ayto’s shoulders. As a recruitment department, backed by the manager’s tastes and the owners’ control of the budget, it was apparent Arsenal did not seriously pursue players who did move in January to good subsequent effect (hello, Marco Asensio).
Again, such is the club’s financial position, Berta will not suddenly be given mega-millions to play with. He will have to work within their remit to strengthen ambitiously but carefully, if that is not too much of a contradiction.
Arsenal put a lot of resources into the search for their Edu successor. They will be hoping this speedier and possibly bumpier road is the right one for them to hurtle down.
jones
Captain Serious
lol this is blatantly fed to them by Arteta. He's pissed he can't install his AI generated puppet as DoF and sees Berta as a threat so he's asked his lapdogs to go after the new guy from the off - seriously what other reason could there be for them to doubt Bertas credentials while shielding some non descript intern from criticism?The Athletic kinda shat on Berta
Most recent article by Dermot Corrigan making it unclear what he actually did at Athletico.
View attachment 32983
View attachment 32984
There is also earlier article from Amy Lawrence where…well read this bit for yourselves:
View attachment 32981
They were very clearly pro Ayto as well:
View attachment 32982
This Amy article is written in a similar tone to how she would write about Arsène (brought up his dismissal of directors again) and Emery.
jones
Captain Serious
You'd often read that Gil Marin vetoed a signing because it was too expensive so the purse strings bit is correct but that's about it, Berta was in charge of scouting and identifying players no question about it even if he did regress in recent seasons.
Also what kinda criticism is saying Atletico is his whole identity when he's been in charge there since Arteta was still playing for us. Arteta having his first ever position at Arsenal is no issue, giving this Ayto prick his first ever job at the club neither but with Berta it is lol. It's not even true he was director at two Serie A clubs before ffs.
Macho
Mr Delete
Country: England
Yeah it’s a hit piece. Even the comments which are usually die hard optimists are kinda calling it out.
I noticed the most recent article has had a few revisions already.
Rex Stone
I am a man and I’m relentless
Country: Wales
Player:Nwaneri
Yeah that’s right. A lot of the “deals” that he gets credit for are as a result of Atletico having longstanding deals with super agents.
Similar to Raul but the club isn’t as blatantly corrupt as that guy was lol. From what I understand, Berta goes through these agents player lists and picks out targets while Marin works on their clubs. He’s basically the Fiorentino Perez of the club.
Marin played a big part in getting the Griezmann deals with Barcelona done.
Macho
Mr Delete
Country: England
You got your thoughts on this appointment anywhere already?
Rex Stone
I am a man and I’m relentless
Country: Wales
Player:Nwaneri
Yeah I think on balance it’s a good move I just don’t expect him to have that Michael Edwards - Liverpool impact. You’re basically getting his contact book and considering the amount of signings Atletico continuously make I’d say he has a better than 50% hit rate.
There will probably be quite a few flop signings but he’s good at recycling the squad with his contact book so it won’t be too big an issue and we’ll move them on quickly. That’s why you’d get him in, can bump you to the top of the queue with the big 3 in Portugal through his Jorge Mendes links as well as clubs in Italy.
Said elsewhere he’d probably do a Sesko - Vlahovic combo rather than go big on one name striker like Isak or Gyokeres as he can be quite cautious and would rather sign as many players as possible in the hope one hits.
Interested what it means for Arteta, first few years he tailored the squad for Simeone with a lot of cloggers and runners but then he started making deals for players that didn’t fit that template which did cause issues.
With his contacts in Italian and Portuguese football I wonder if Leao would be a signing he’d make for example that’s not an Arteta player.
Last edited:
jones
Captain Serious
Shameless behaviour. The Athletic is literally a brothel, you go in pick a presstitute give them 20 quid or a whiff of an exclusive and they do everything you want.
Country: England
Gunnerblog said he think its went down to Berta or Ayto as the final two. I bet they were pretty close to just giving it to Ayto before the league blew up and had all the PR ready and going for Ayto.
