But nothing is changing came the cry last week when it was announced that Arsenal would not be bringing in a Director of Football .
Despite the board seemingly favouring the appointment of a Director of Football and Chief executive Ivan Gazidis having sounded out several candidates during the second half of the season, Arsene Wenger proved resistant to relinquishing control of the club’s transfer strategy.
A decision was made to make a new appointment to the clubs backroom staff this summer, but at a lower level than the director of football role originally planned. A move was made yesterday with signing of new legal expert from Team Sky.
Commercial expert Huss Fahmy has been bought in from Team Sky to work on player contracts. A sign that the Arsenal board have recognised a weakness within the clubs current structure.
Fahmy has been a key part of Team Sky’s operation since around its inception in 2010 after moving to Sky the previous year from the City where he worked for the multi-national law firm Herbert Smith.
His arrival at Arsenal is a further signal that chief executive Ivan Gazidis is delivering on his promise to bring change this summer in the ongoing search for best practice following the disappointment of finishing only fifth in the Premier League.
Following Fahmy into Arsenal is fitness expert Darren Burgess.
Burgess joins the club from American Rules Football side Port Adelaide, and takes up a new role as director of high performance. Whatever the hell that means.
He previously worked at Liverpool as the club’s head of fitness and conditioning from 2010 until 2013.
Expected to work above Shad Forsyth, Burgess’s new role could see the end of Tony Colbert’s 19 year stay at the club.
Arsenal have still yet to fill the Academy Manager role left by Andries Jonkier back earlier this year. Luke Hobbs will continue in the role as Interim Manager until a permanent appointment is made.
Whilst Arsenal might not be going for the director of football, a new man to oversee contracts and another to oversee the fitness set up will see Wenger’s work load and stranglehold reduce.
FJ Express
