Morning all!
Following on from the new that Arsenal CEO Vinai Venkatesham to step down next summer, we thought we would look into what Arsenal’s Senior Management Team will look like post-Vinai.
In recent years, Arsenal have had a few different management structures, from a single person who oversees everything to joint management at the top.
Back in the late 2010’s, Ivan Gazidis was CEO, with Vinai, Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat as equals underneath him.
Vinai, as Chief Commercial Officer, focused on the business side of Arsenal, Sanllehi oversaw football operations and Mislintat the recruitment side.
Following Gazidis’s departure in 2018, there was a power struggle within the 3 equals below him.
Sanllehi and Mislintat both seemed to look to position themselves to replace Gazidis and, following disgrements on Arsenal’s transfer policy, Mislintat left.
Mislintat’s departure left Arsenal with just Vinai and Sanllehi. They entered a sort of power sharing agree, with Vinai promoted to Managing Director and Sanllehi promoted to Head of Football. This lasted a little more than 2-years before Sanllehi left.
Sanllehi’s departure in 2020 saw Vinai appointed as CEO nd given sole responsibility for the day-to-day running of the club. He would oversee a new senior management team that also saw Edu take on many of Sanllehi’s duties as the clubs technical director.
Richard Garlick was appointed in 2021 as Director of Football Operations and was soon joined by Julia Slott as Chief Commercial Officer. Last year, was Edu promoted to Sporting Director.
So Vinai departs with the club having a similar structure to that of the Gazidis days – a CEO overseeing the entire club, then one person overseeing the commercial side (Slott), one over seeing the football side (Garlick), and one in charge of recruitment (Edu).
So what are Arsenal’s options now?
If history repeats itself, we could see Slott and Garlick take up the post-Gazidis Vinai and Sanllehi roles.
Slott would be solely responsible for the commercial side of Arsenal, Garlick responsible for the football operations, with the pair working in tandem and reporting directly into the Kroenke’s (Josh on a more day to day basis).
The second option is that we try to mimic the current structure, with Slott becoming the new CEO.
Slott will be following the path of Vinai if this happens – moving from Chief Commercial Officer into the CEO position.
She would then be replaced in the structure by newly appointed Omar Mohammed Shaikh.
Shaikh is the new Partnerships Sales Director and operates at a level below Slott on the commercial side of the business. He was previously Vice President of Commercial Development at Liverpool, reporting directly into the CEO.
It does not take too much mental gymnastics to think that the club knew about Vinai’s intentions some time ago and saw Slott as his natural successor. As a result, they appointed someone who could fill her shoes, allowing Slott to make that step up.
The issue the club faces is Slott is very unpopular with many Arsenal fans having fumbled the changes in the ticketing processes. Her appointment would see plenty of disgruntled noises from the terraces, and risks alienating fans.
Arsenal is a good place to be right now. On the pitch, off the pitch and on the terraces, it feels like One Arsenal. Slott’s appointment could undo that.
The result could be that we end up in a similar position to Manchester United when they appointed Ed Woodward.
Manchester United declined rapidly under Woodward’s 10 year leadership and relations between club and fans created a hostile atmosphere at Old Trafford. The feeling is that a Slott appointment as CEO could re-open old wounds.
So the solution?
If the club want a less controversial figure, they could opt for Garlick as CEO, with Edu and Slott reporting into him.
Garlick has been behind a lot of the improvements we have seen with the financial side of the team.
Since his appointment, we saw highly paid players depart which drove the wage bill down. This allowed for new investment in younger, exciting talent. He has also been key in the new contracts for the likes of Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli.
Garlick is a football man having been Director of Football Administration at West brom before moving to the Premier League as Director of Football. But is he suitable for CEO?
A CEO in any business has to be a commercial strategic leader.
They would have a track record of track record of developing and delivering strategies, building successful teams and delivering growth and profit. It is not quite what Garlick does.
My feeling is that the CEO should be “business first, football second”.
You operate a strong and successful business model, a strong and successful football team should follow – the additional revenue leads to being able to recruit better players, coaches, etc.
If the CEO comes from a football administration background, their decisions could lead to decisions that might be a positive for the football side, but a negative for the business of Arsenal. The result could lead to financial insecurity.
But what for Josh Kroenke and Tim Lewis?
I have seen some say Josh might step into the CEO role. I would be very surprised.
CEO of a business is a not a part time job. He would have to be working in London, for Arsenal, 60 hours a week.
Considering his roles with the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalache, as well as his other business interests, I doubt he will have the time to commit to Arsenal full time.
The other name continually mentioned is Tim Lewis.
Lewis was formally a partner at law firm Clifford Chance, where he worked alongside the Kroenke’s on their deal to buy Arsenal. He was appointed as a non-executive director of Arsenal in 2020.
In October last year, he resigned his partnership with the firm to “place more emphasis on his work with Arsenal”.
In March 2023, he became “Executive Vice-Chair”. In simple terms, Lewis chairs Arsenal board meetings in the absence of either of the Kroenke’s, and he is the man that reports directly into them.
It is not clear what further day to day involvementhis Lewis has with Arsenal, nor if he is even an employee of the club. There is a feeling from outside that he is heavilly involved in every major decision the club takes.
Could Lewis be the man to step into Vinai’s shoes and take a more official role in the club?
There is certainly a headache for the Kroenkes and Tim Lewis. As board members, they will be responsible for appointing Vinai’s successor.
The power struggle and poor appointments after Gazidis left crippled our club.
We wasted millions on poor recruitment, saw our commercial income plummet, huge fan discontent and the football team decline. We can not afford to make the same mistakes again…
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 