Former Head of Recruitment Sven Mislintat has previously labelled its scouting “bloated” and the club “dysfunctional” and structure “an absolute mess”

Mislintat left Arsenal in February 2019. A key reason why he left is due to a row with Raul Sanllehi over Arsenal’s scouting department.

According to the Independent, Mislintat felt that Arsenal’s scouting department was too bloated and attempted to trim it down but was blocked from doing so by Sanllehi.

A lot of fuss has been made of Arsenal making 55 employees redundant. There are explanations behind every single redundancy.

The scouting department has been under review ever since Mislintat shared his view with Sanllehi. Just last summer, Arsenal trimmed the scouting department.

Following the appointment of Edu as technical director, Arsenal have continued to monitor the situation and decided to make further scouts redundant, including Head of International Recruitment Francis Cagigao.

In recent years, there has been a move away from “traditional scouting”.

Under Arsene Wenger, the scouting department was huge, with scouts in every corner of the globe.

It set Arsenal apart from other Premier League clubs. But that was over 20-years ago.

These days scouting is much more data driven.

Clubs pay big money (or in Arsenal’s case own) for data on footballers.

The stuff we see on Opts or Understat, clubs have access to much more.

In modern recruitment, clubs tend to be recommended players by local independent scouts who are not on the payroll. These scouts make commission if the player they recommended is signed.

Clubs then run the player through their data programmes, and analyse video footage of them.

Based on the opinion of their analysis, clubs then decide whether to send a scout out to watch said player or to not bother.

Back before the era of data and technology, clubs would be unable to rule out players without seeing them.

The technology allows for clubs to work in a more structured manner, focusing on players who have the data to back up the recommendation. No longer do clubs have to spend money on sending a scout out to the middle of nowhere based on a recommendation.

A mixture between the new technology and data meant that Arsenal’s huge scouting network had become bloated and hard to control.

It seems Edu agrees with Mislintat’s viewpoint and this has led to Arsenal to further trim down the scouting department.

Moving forward, Arsenal will act on recommendations of independent scouts and be paying a commission rather than a salary. In turn this saves the club money and allows the club to operate with a smaller, more manageable scouting department.

Arsenal making 55 people redundant has made a lot of people angry. But the scouting department has been bloated and dysfunctional for some time.

It was likely Arsenal would have culled the scouting department even if Covid19 did not happen.

Keenos

I wasn’t going to blog this morning about the redundancies last night, but the complete over reaction of Arsenal fans have led me to do so.

Redundancies are part of business

Anyone that has ever worked for a medium or large business will have gone through a time when the company they work for has to make redundancies.

I have been at my firm for 15 years. In that time we have had to make redundancies:

• During the recession
• When closing failing parts of the business
• When streamlining middle managment
• When culling underperformers
• Due to Covid19

It is not nice, but it happens.

And it really does not matter how much the owner is worth or how much money the company is making. If you have failing staff, failing departments, or they is no longer a need for their job role, the axe will fall.

Look at the bank you are with.

Banks are always cutting thousands of staff. Yet they make billions a year in profit. Whether that is to move an office elsewhere, coming out of an investment market, or just to protect the bank on a slight down turn.

I imagine every football club will make redundancies between now and the end of the year. I imagine most businesses will too.
Why have Arsenal made people redundant?

A few weeks ago Arsenal closed the club shop at Finsbury Park.

Since the opening of the new stadium, and with it the Armoury, the shop at Finsbury Park would have seen sales drop.

Add in the amount of people now buying online which is killing all of the High Street retail sector, it probably made little sense to keep the shop open.

Some of the staff might have been absorbed into the Armoury rota, but there would not have been space for everyone.

Are people expecting the club to keep retail staff employed even though they no longer have a shop to work in?

Match days are also the biggest days for the Armoury – as well as stores within the ground. With no football, you do not need as much retail staff.

Ask yourself – when was the last time I went into the Finsbury Park shop?

Likewise many other jobs are linked to matches.

We have executive sales staff whose job it is to try and sell the boxes and premium seats to companies. Without football, these people do not have a product to sell.

We really have no idea on every role that was made redundant, why their job no longer exists, and how many other people already do that role.

There are a lot of great people working in the box office, in membership and support liaison roles. Hopefully the club have protected these.

There are also usually many older workers who would like redundancy. People who have been with the club decades and fancy a nice lay out and early retirement.

Ultimately, simply can not keep people employed if their job role no longer exists.

But what about the scouts?

And then we come onto the scouts.

Scouting has changed in recent years with more and more technology being used. Perhaps we no longer need the large network of scouts. As many boots on the ground?

How many scouts do Arsenal have in comparison to Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Juventus?

Without know this answer, we don’t know whether perhaps Arsenal’s scouting department under Arsene Wenger and Steve Rowley has become over bloated? Too many scouts on the official payroll not producing enough quality players?

Let’s not forget, Sven Mislintat felt the scouting structure was way too bloated, and that not enough of the many individuals involved were working towards any unifying idea.
He tried to considerably trim it down, only to be blocked by head of football Raul Sanllehi.
Maybe Raul now agrees with Mislintat. Our scouting department had become too big.

Arsenal overstaffed?

Non-football related staff per club according to last accounts:

• Liverpool – 675
• Man U – 549
• Arsenal – 547
• Arsenal – 492*
• Spurs – 317
• Chelsea – 283
• Man City – 239

*following the 55 redundancies

So before the redundancies, Arsenal already employed 100s more than Tottenham, Chelsea and Man City.

And after the redundancies we still have 100s more.

Forget about the players

Mesut Ozil has come in for abuse due to the club letting go non-plying staff.

People have to separate the playing and non playing parts of the club in their head. They are almost like two separate businesses.

It is like a restaurant that now has less customers. You might not need as many waiters, cleaners and bar staff, but you still need the chefs to cook the food.

Underperforming scouts have been let go. People whose job role no longer exists have been let go. This has nothing to do with what Mesut Ozil, Hector Bellerin or anyone else.

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Ultimately, anytime a company makes people redundant it is tough for those who are being let go and their family. But there are always reasons companies let people go.

Look beyond Stan Kroenke’s net worth. And look beyond what Arsenal players earn. Ask yourself whether you think the club should “keep people employed even though they no longer have a job role?”

If you have answered yes, did you complain when all those turnstile operators were made redundant when we went to automated turnstiles?

Redundancies are not nice, but they are part of life.

Arsenal have cut 10% of their staff.

Keenos