David Ornstein on Arsecast

Podcast link in the tweet for anyone that wants to listen

 

From a hero on reddit:

Well that was an interesting listen! Here's points raised by Ornstein!

• The January budget was "meager", nearly nothing to work with for permanent signings. Loan signings with options to buy was the target. Any loan signings had to have option to buy, not obligation. Targeted players were told this fact.
• Arsenal vaguely explored to bring back Chambers from Fulham but that would have incurred a recall fee so Arsenal shelved the idea and focused on attacking targets.
• Mavropanos highly thought of within club. Wenger was annoyed he was bought in without his opinion but he came round on his ability after watching him in training.
• Arsenal thought we were well off in numbers at the back but were aware of quality issues.
• Focus on defensive signings in Summer.
• Arsenal were looking for box-to-box midfielder and wide player for January. Went extremely hard for Perisic. Inter were angry that we wouldn't give them an obligation to buy Perisic. There weren't interested in the reported penalty fee.
• Arsenal were interested in Carrasco at start of the window. Loan fee offered was nowhere near what Dalian Yifang wanted. When Arsenal went back in for him after Perisic, the loan fee didn't change.
• Serious interest in Nkunku throughout the staff. Thought it could have been done. Needed PSG to get a midfielder for deal to go through. Politics in play with Tuchel and Mislantat. Wouldn't be surprised if we go back in for him in the Summer.
• Emery likes experienced players and players he knows and trusts, hence Denis Suarez.
• Rumored reports on the potential of us going in for Rabiot.
• Emery was highly on board with Guendouzi signing. If Guendouzi didn't go through, Emery would have been interested in N'Zonzi.
• Shock to everyone at club that Gazidis left. Everyone thought he would smooth over the transition process before leaving.
• Mislantat wanted the technical director role in the club. No recommendation after Gazidis left to take the role.
• Jason Rosenfeld was included in the panel to select the new manager.
• Mislantat led Carrasco & Perisic deals but then Raul took over those deals after Mislantat was confirmed to leave.
• Mislantat's plan was to step back in year 1 to assess the squad and then step in to restructure it but by then it was too late as he is now leaving.
• Whoever takes the Techinical Director role has to be known and trusted by Emery or have a strong connection with Arsenal.
• Monchi is Raul & Emery's first choice for the role. Ornstein heard from someone it's a done deal but not sure and will probably hear more in the coming days/weeks.
• Looking to head towards an intelligent recruitment model, i.e. buy unknowns, develop them into talents and either keep or sell them for money to re-invest into the team.
• Doesn't believe there was a fallout between Raul & Sven, just that their outlooks conflicted each others.
• Self sustaining model is set to continue.
• Arsenal set well in analytics etc.
• Arsenal impressed with Ljungberg and Mertesacker. Emery's training sessions are intense.
• Kroenke's leaving Raul and Vinai to run club as they are happy with how they go about things.
• Ornstein not seeing a clear vision of what Kroenke wants for the club or what the plan is.
• Most of Arsenal's directors were at the Superbowl on Sunday. City's directors were surprised at the low number of them at the match on Sunday.
• Emery long-term appointment. Club expects 4/5 transfer windows before they get to where they want to be competitively.
• Ornstein has heard that we can have around £100m in Summer but doesn't want to say that for a fact as he is not completely sure.
• Some within the club didn't want to give Özil a contract and some didn't want Özil to be on that wage. Özil had bargaining power due to Sanchez leaving.
• Troubles with how Özil is settling in Emery's play-style.
• Ornstein not sure whether his story of Özil being recommended to leave was from Emery, the hierarchy or both.
• Özil is training well and not a problem within the camp.
• Theorizes that Özil is not playing so he will be forced to leave in the Summer, thus saving Arsenal millions.

 

Interesting that Orny said that the hierarchy might be using Emery to express their feelings to Özil through him i.e. putting pressure on him for Özil not producing the level of consistency on his wages.

 

It makes a lot of sense if it’s true that the Özil deal were all Gazidis. That guy really can’t handle finances

 

More interesting that the hierarchy went to the super bowl.
Should hang their heads in disgust .

Getting really fed up with the whole arsenal situation now. Low budget signings will be bought this summer
.

 

Nah not at all, I assume they were invited by Kronke, you don't say no. Bigger things to worry about.

 

Why would that be more interesting? It's not the first time anyway, Gazidis skipped the 4-0 CL loss in Milan to go on a skiing holiday.

 

They were invited by their boss to one of the biggest sporting events in the world. I’m getting fed up of fans whining about pointless ****.

 

100M available in the window is decent. If we sell Özil that’d a free up a lot of money as well.

 

It's actually a lot more interesting than I thought it would be, I'd suggest listening to it when you have the time.

 

Good news about Monchi if true. Also interesting that analytics will still play a strong role in our recruitment policy, so even without Sven, we could still see some decent signings depending on who has the most say.

Bit disappointed in the bit about Emery liking experienced players more. Doesn't bode well for the academy IMO. However, with Ben Knapper on board, maybe some loan stints will get them some game time and experience.

Will check the Arsecast out later.

 

Good and bad stuff there.. Interesting though.

 

Is the 100 million the new '50 million pound warchest'?

 

So young and defensive options in the summer i like it.

 

It’s the same 50m added to what Arsenal-mania thinks we’ll get for Iwobi and Jenkinson.

 

And hereby lies the problem above.

And people moan why tut tut

 

Seems like Ornstein talk less about our academy than in his previous interview which is bad imo. Not much inspiring really from us, more of the same.

 

I was of the same sentiment but on second thought I think it's more about bringing some players that are experienced in his methods - hence Denis and Rabiot links (who are not old guys), while trying to assemble his squad.

I honestly believe we will see a lot of youth development with him since Denis and Rabiot were primarly 'developed' in his teams while young.

 

4-5 transfer windows isn't really that long term. Would only be end of next season.

 

Would hope that's the case, and I like the idea of adding a bit more two-way players like Rabiot - who can defend and attack decently. Nkunku too. It would clog the midfield a bit though and we may need to sell to bring those guys in.

Suarez I'm not too sure on but I'll give it a shot. I just feel he's not the kind of wide player we should be bringing in - however, I think if we ever give Nelson, Saka and Amaechi the chance, they'll make the wings their own IMO. I'm yet to be convinced by Emery's youth policy, it's been decent but IMO (bar Guendouzi and maybe ESR) it could have been better so far. There's promise though, I'm optimistic.