Raul Sanllehi, Arsenal head of football, leaves club in structural shakeup

Arsenal’s summer cull continues with its highest-profile casualty yet. Raul Sanllehi finds himself faced with an extended holiday and the club are left to shapeshift once again, hoping their latest attempt to land upon an effective, competent executive operation for the post-Wenger era bears fruit.

It is no surprise to see Sanllehi depart. There are no two ways about it: since his arrival in November 2017, initially as head of football relations before the latter word was cut 10 months later, Arsenal’s standing has deteriorated considerably. Nobody would dream of laying that entirely at the Spaniard’s door, because the roots of decline had set in long before he was appointed. The Kroenkes bear ultimate responsibility for several botched attempts to reverse that direction of travel but it is significant that they have chosen to take action now.

Under Sanllehi, Arsenal’s dealings had quickly become flabby and wasteful. The list of failures, or at least serious question marks, is extensive for such a short period. Sanllehi was influential in the decision to appoint Unai Emery and the manner in which that tenure nosedived towards disaster has been thoroughly raked over. Within that, too many of the transfers he oversaw did not provide the returns expected of a club that instead sits in its lowest league position for 25 years.

Was Nicolas Pépé really worth the club record £72m fee approved by its executive committee in July 2019? Nobody doubts the Ivorian is a decent player but you would be hard pressed to find anyone, among those in the game who had followed his progress closely, who does not believe Arsenal paid around 50% over the odds. Could they have found a better deal six months previously than a loan fee to Barcelona for Denis Suárez, who played 95 minutes in half a season? Was it good business to sign David Luiz on to a lavish salary and then, shortly after the Covid-19 shutdown, allow the 33-year-old an extra year? Did the deputy right-back Cédric Soares, injured for his first five months at the club, merit a four-year contract at the end of his loan from Southampton? Should an operation that knows its onions require the agency run by Kia Joorabchian – who represents David Luiz, Soares and a more recent signing, Willian – to assist at its end of Alex Iwobi’s sale to Everton?

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing or malpractice. It is more that Sanllehi’s Arsenal did not make enough pennies count at a time when, with their most recent spell in the Champions League receding in the rear view mirror, their margin for error was decreasing each year. There have been successful acquisitions under his watch, too. Kieran Tierney may yet prove a bargain at £25m, while Gabriel Martinelli – unearthed by the departed head of recruitment Francis Cagigao – is on track for stardom if he recovers fully from a knee injury. Hopes are high for William Saliba, who has returned from his loan back to Saint-Etienne. Perhaps Pablo Marí will, when he is fit in the late autumn, prove worth the long-term contract he was awarded after two-and-a-bit perfectly reasonable showings on loan from Flamengo. But there remain far more maybes than sure-fire successes, and Arsenal cannot afford that.

On 1 July, Arsenal appointed Tim Lewis to the board as a non-executive director. Lewis, a corporate lawyer, can be fairly described as the Kroenkes’ man on the ground. One figure familiar with his remit recently told the Guardian that Lewis had in effect “come in and read the riot act” in reviewing the club’s process; another suggests such a quick reshuffle in their hierarchy is little coincidence. Arsenal stress Sanllehi’s departure was mutually agreed and no reflection on his work, the bulk of their rationale being that they simply required a leaner management framework.

The managing director, Vinai Venkatesham, will now be a lone figurehead while the technical director, Edu, will work with Mikel Arteta on football-specific matters such as transfers. How the latter arrangement works will be of particular interest given the predilection, during Sanllehi’s time, for working through agents such as Joorabchian while the recently torched scouting department felt sidelined.

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Something had to change at Arsenal and the sense is that, in parting with Sanllehi, they have made the right choice. That can only be made certain, though, if they take the right steps from here. Arteta’s appointment at the second time of asking in December is arguably the only high-level decision since the succession plan to Wenger began that looks bulletproof. Sanllehi, previously of Barcelona, was appointed as part of a drive to – in the words of the then-chief executive Ivan Gazidis – build “top-class expertise across every aspect of our football operations”. It did not work out and, in some ways, they find themselves back where they started. There is one less voice in the boardroom, but this most fraught of elite clubs might profit handsomely from a little more simplicity.