Arsenal privately resisted the suggestion that an agent was having a significant influence on their transfer policy, but on Saturday night they face a team that is proving that it may not be a bad thing.
Wolves are a short distance from qualifying for the Champions League after four years of working with super agent Jorge Mendes. The Gunners are not cohorts with Kia Joorabchian to something similar on the same level, but if you analyze a similar relationship, their opponents this weekend offer a clear indication that it can be mutually beneficial.
There is a similar dismay to Wolves every time it is suggested that super agent Jorge Mendes – who counts Cristiano Ronaldo among his star customers – is unduly prominent in the club’s strategy, but their relentless rise since he was involved is undeniable. They start this weekend’s clash in Molineux in parity for fifth place, six points above Arsenal at the Premier League table and strongly positioned to continue their dramatic upward curve since Mendes has recommended the acquisition of £ 45 million from the Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Limited in 2016.
Being one of the most famous agents in the world, Mendes has helped wolves to operate on the market with a talent that Arsenal has lacked in recent years.
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Grouping with agents was something that former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger objected morally, and sources told ESPN that former Gunners CEO Ivan Gazidis found clandestine, often dirty, aspects in some particularly unpleasant transfer negotiations. On the contrary, the new Arsenal regime – in particular the head of football Raul Sanllehi and the technical director Edu – have been introduced to add new football skills and make the club more streamlined in identifying talent and executing transfers. This led to the formation of a close alliance between Arsenal and Kia Joorabchian, one of a handful of representatives (together with Mendes) worthy of the “super-agent” moniker. So far, however, all Gunners have to prove that that partnership is an unpopular extension of the contract for David Luiz and a four-year deal for Cedric Soares, who was out of contract this summer and has only played 13 minutes for the club since he was arrived in January from Southampton.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a club that has a favorite agent to do business with. Many of these relationships are based on genuine friendships or a solid professional understanding. (Joorabchian is, at heart, an Arsenal fan.) But if Arsenal is giving up a certain moral currency by aligning with one particular agent on top of the other, shouldn’t they get more in return as the Wolves did?
The Gunners moved quickly last week to reject any claim that Joorabchian had ever represented Edu. Head coach Mikel Arteta has also publicly stated his desire to retain both Luiz and Cedric before the couple extend their stays in North London, and the experience the couple brings will be a useful resource as the Spaniard tries to inject a new work ethic into the club. Likewise, Bukayo Saka’s contract was extended without Joorabchian’s involvement and Sanllehi in particular would have been insulted by the insinuation that his contact book extends only to Joorabchian’s number and his old office in Barcelona.
Arsenal’s summer budget is not yet fully determined, but there is already an acceptance that they will have to extract the maximum value on the market, discover some economic gems and send those who are surplus to the requirements as much as possible. The comparison is not precise, but if Arsenal really has the aspiration to return to the top of English football, it will have to overcome the preconceptions about the general position of the team, which the Wolves faced when Fosun took power in 2016.
Fosun followed the advice of Chinese president Xi Jinping to invest in European football, with Jeff Shi becoming president of the Wolves and decided to rely on the experience of his friend Mendes. For the record, the deal came seven months after a Fosun branch acquired a 20% stake in the Gestifute agency in Mendes. After firing managers Kenny Jackett, Walter Zenga and Paul Lambert, Wolves named Nuno Espirito Santo – Mendes’ first client when the first was a 22-year-old goalkeeper – and repeatedly broke into the Portuguese market, although he had signed several players who they weren’t represented by Mendes.
According to numerous sources, he “opened the door” to wolves, undeniably a tough sale at the beginning of his involvement, and a look at the list of intermediaries used in the re-registrations or transactions of wolves for the current season highlights the continuation of Mendes role. The FA document names Gestifute or Talents Throne, the agency owned and managed by Mendes’ close partner, Valdir Cardoso, on 14 occasions. Leeds President Andrea Radrizzani previously claimed that the Mendes connection was “illegal and unfair”, but no impropriety was ever found and Wolves simply brought high-level players to speed up their promotion from the Championship, which they did in 2017-18.
Ruben Neves won the EFL Player of the Year in 2017-18, having cost a club record (but not mind-blowing at the highest level) £ 15.8 million from Porto. The gesti customers, Diogo Jota, Joao Moutinho, Rui Patricio, Pedro Neto and the January signature Daniel Podence, also landed in Molineux, with the assistance of Mendes. But those with an intrinsic knowledge of Wolves ‘behind-the-scenes work cite clarity of thought and unity of purpose as equal, if not larger, factors than Mendes’ influence. It’s not a strong physical presence across the club, with sources claiming that Mendes has only played in half a dozen games in the past two years. Meanwhile, sources tell ESPN that Cardoso has participated in over half of the Wolves’ games and is often seen on the club’s Sir Jack Hayward training ground. It is also known that he occasionally stays in the houses of the players he represents.
However, an agent cannot win a club. Money must be spent wisely and a team built. The current wolf buoyancy owes much to the shared vision of President Jeff Shi, head coach Nuno Espirito Santo and recruiting chief John Marshall. Former sports director Kevin Thelwell was also highly rated before his departure to the Red Bulls in New York earlier this year, helping to identify several successful signings including Leander Dendoncker without Mendes’ involvement.
Goals are also easier to identify when a team’s identity is so clear and Santo’s influence has grown exponentially during his three-year stint. During that time he led Wolves to a championship title, a seventh place in the Premier League and a place in the last 16 of the Europa League. He was partly admired for the 46-year-old’s progressive and innovative game style that Arsenal put him on their long list to replace Unai Emery after the Spaniard was fired last November.
The fear of some Arsenal supporters is that the club is still in the midst of an identity crisis that started in the last years of Arsene Wenger’s reign. Along with the lack of direction from the Kroenke family and competing visions in the boardroom, a tight alignment with an agent could only favor a shotgun recruitment plan if it serves a person’s interests rather than those of the club in his together. Arsenal cannot afford such mistakes, especially given gloomy financial projections.
Edu and Joorabchian worked together on several agreements during the period preceding Corinthians. Joorabchian’s Sports Invest UK agency also represented Arsenal in the £ 35m transfer of Alex Iwobi to Everton. Neither is out of the ordinary, but during negotiations to extend David Luiz’s contract last month, Joorabchian went to a British radio station last month to declare “there are several problems within the entire structure which will be resolved. ” This claim raised eyebrows among rival agents with long-standing ties to Arsenal, as some privately expressed concerns about how the transfer policy was headed.
Again, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with listening to Joorabchian, an expert and well connected, who also considers Willian and Philippe Coutinho among his impressive clients. But wolves are showing that one of the best arrangements comes when an influential agent feeds on a larger and more stable structure offering a clear strategy for team development. The agent part is ordered at Arsenal. Now for the rest …
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