3 days ago
Arsenal in advanced talks with Matteo Tognozzi over senior recruitment role
Arsenal are in advanced talks with Matteo Tognozzi over a senior recruitment role.
Sporting director Andrea Berta, who joined the Premier League club in March, is hoping to expand the group working closest to him following the departure of predecessor Jason Ayto.
Ayto held the role on an interim basis following Edu's exit in November before the club opted for former Atletico Madrid executive Berta on a permanent basis.
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Tognozzi, formerly of Juventus and Granada, could now join in time to assist with Arsenal's summer transfer window, which is expected to busy.
Berta moved to Arsenal after 12 years at Atletico Madrid, working alongside Diego Simeone. He first joined the Spanish club's scouting department before climbing the ranks to sporting director in four years.
Analysis from James McNicholas
Berta was always going to require some support at Arsenal in order to effectively execute his role as sporting director. It was initially thought that might come from Jason Ayto, who had been assistant sporting director under Edu previously.
Ayto left his position after more than a decade at the club last month, which effectively created a vacancy.
Tognozzi will join Arsenal's existing recruitment set up with Berta as sporting director and James Ellis as head of recruitment. Exactly how that hierarchy is organised remains to be seen.
After Berta's arrival and Ayto's departure a degree of change has been expected in Arsenal's recruitment operations, and that trend may well continue across the summer.
Analysis by James Horncastle
Tognozzi was part of a very talented group of recruiters under Fabio Paratici at Juventus. He helped set up Juventus Next Gen, an Under-23 team Juventus enrolled in Italy's third division to help bridge the gap between youth team and first team football.
Many of the players Tognozzi helped identified made the leap. They include Dean Huijsen, Kenan Yildiz, Matias Soule, Samuel Iling Junior. The only one who remains is Yildiz.
Although Tognozzi left to pursue a more senior role with Granada in La Liga, his work at Juventus is highly respected. Of the players mentioned only Yildiz remains and he was given the No.10 shirt. The rest were sold for significant money by the successive recruitment department.
This has been viewed as short-sighted and is the source of considerable regret. Cristiano Giuntoli was the sporting director who cashed in on them. He reinvested the profits poorly and paid with his job this week.
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