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The Nketiah Deal - behind the scenes (long article)


redordead1

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Interesting article from The Athletic about the dragons den style pitches that went into securing Nketiah. It casts a different light on Arsenal’s (and the players) actions.

Apologies for the long article, it sits behind an app so not easy to share.

Leeds United probed patiently for 43 minutes, back and forth from side to side until Salford City’s shape gave way: Jamie Shackleton to Helder Costa and Costa with a low cut-back across the box where Eddie Nketiah faded to the left of Salford defender Nathan Pond and rammed the ball into the net.

Nketiah smiled and gestured to the stand behind the goal with a finger to his lips, the first crowd he has silenced in Leeds colours but surely not the last. His finishing, his confidence — both of which were there on his debut in the League Cup on Tuesday — were what clubs were queuing up for throughout the transfer window and The Athletic can reveal the extraordinary Dragons Den-style process that culminated in Leeds winning the fight to sign Nketiah on loan from Arsenal last week.

Arsenal’s painstaking method of choosing the 20-year-old’s destination, involving long presentations by senior figures from the teams in the running to take him, reveals the attention to detail at London Colney but also the extent to which elite sides now deliberate over temporary moves. One agent, spoken to by The Athletic, said the birth of specific loan managers was turning that corner of the market into “a business in itself” where the terms of a deal are often wholly in favour of the parent club.

Leeds are regulars in that market and made three loan signings from Chelsea a year ago, a clutch of deals that tell a tale about the expectations of the top flight. The clubs were on good terms back then and mutually enthusiastic in negotiating transfers which everyone agreed would be good for the players involved. As it stands today, 12 months on, Leeds would have a hard time persuading Chelsea to answer the phone.

The club signed goalkeeper Jamal Blackman from Chelsea but failed to use him in a league game before Blackman broke his leg playing for the Under-23s, three months after heading north. They signed Lewis Baker and started him five times; so few appearances that a clause in his contract allowed Chelsea to terminate his loan in January. They signed Izzy Brown but used him for all of 11 minutes in first-team matches, initially because Brown was recovering from knee surgery but latterly because Marcelo Bielsa thought the midfielder’s intensity levels were lacking. Three players from the top flight club with a handful of Championship games between them. Chelsea’s hierarchy were not impressed.

Last week Leeds went elsewhere in London to land Nketiah on a season-long loan from Arsenal. What happened in the days before his transfer and within the walls of Arsenal’s training ground at London Colney took the management of loanees to an extreme level, with clubs asked to make presentations to the player and club to explain why they were the right destination for him. The process is new at Arsenal and seen by them as pioneering. Nketiah came via a substantial seven-figure outlay, between fees and wages over the course of this season, but committing the money was only the start of the scrap which ended with the forward linking up with Leeds on deadline day.

Nketiah is about as good as it gets in Arsenal’s academy and he is in that grey area where first-team appearances are very nearly his. But Unai Emery, Arsenal’s workaholic manager, has been caught in two minds about the youngster. The Gunners accepted a loan offer for Nketiah from Augsburg in January and arranged for him to travel to Germany to wrap up the move at the very end of the window. Nketiah was in Augsburg and waiting to complete when Emery changed his mind and ordered him home. The weather was awful, the snow disrupted departures from Munich airport and Nketiah was lucky to sneak onto the last EasyJet flight back to England.

Interest in him at the end of last season was rife and when Arsenal began fielding calls again they came from Italy, Germany, France and elsewhere. Bristol City and Fortuna Dusseldorf showed their hands early and were still in the running last week — two of the three teams who made the final shortlist and were invited to sell themselves in person to Nketiah and members of Arsenal’s staff. Leeds entered the ring at very short notice, forced to react after Anderlecht appeared with a £6.5 million offer for top scorer Kemar Roofe. With a few days of the window remaining, everything hinged on a presentation given by Leeds director of football Victor Orta in the calm and airy environment of London Colney.

Sources have told The Athletic that Nketiah is the first Arsenal loanee whose destination was decided by a formal process that is likely to become common practice in north London. The framework around Arsenal’s academy system is growing. In January they mirrored the appointments of Eddie Newton at Chelsea and Joleon Lescott at Manchester City by promoting analyst Ben Knapper, once a ProZone employee, to the newly-created role of loans manager. Five months later their coaching structure underwent changes too. Freddie Ljungberg and Steve Bould effectively swapped jobs with Ljungberg becoming assistant first-team coach and Bould dropping down to manage the Under-23s.

Arsenal said they were forming a ‘transition team’ with the aim of helping their young professionals to maximise their potential. The stringent consideration behind Nketiah’s transfer to Leeds is seen as part of that aim. Nketiah was crowded out at The Emirates this summer by the £72 million signing of Nicolas Pepe from Lille but Arsenal want the forward back in a year’s time and are keen to have him in their first-team as soon as he is ready. The questions were therefore crucial: Which loan move would bring the most out of Nketiah and which coach would serve him best?

There is an insatiable appetite for analysis at Arsenal, fuelled by the club’s purchase of US data company StatDNA in 2012. When teams began enquiring about Nketiah, Arsenal’s chief contract negotiator, Huss Fahmy, wanted to know what they were offering, not merely financially — although the figures involved mattered — but their plans for accommodating Nketiah for a year.

Arsenal sought reassurances that he would play but also wanted detailed breakdowns of how Nketiah would be used, how the team he was joining would look tactically and statistical details of goals scored, chances created and the systems adopted last season. Emery took a while before giving Nketiah’s departure the green light but, in the interim, Fahmy was able to whittle down the bidders to a manageable number.

By last Tuesday, 72 hours before the transfer deadline, three remained in contention: Leeds, Bristol City and Fortuna Dusseldorf. Staff from all three travelled to London Colney on the same day to present their ideas and philosophies to Fahmy, Knapper and Nketiah, who was in the room and part of the decision-making process. Bristol City manager Lee Johnson talked them through the Championship side’s pitch personally. Fortuna’s sporting director, Lutz Pfannenstiel, flew in and did his best to promote a modern and well-managed German outfit. Dusseldorf are thought to have been at the front of the queue for Nketiah until Leeds gave Arsenal a last-minute alternative.

Orta and Emery know each other from their days together at Sevilla, where Emery ran the senior squad and Orta worked in recruitment. Emery was abroad in Spain while negotiations for Nketiah were reaching a climax but he had the last say on the transfer and a prior relationship helped Orta get his foot in the door. Leeds held extensive knowledge of Nketiah and had watched him live more than 20 times. Twelve of those scouting trips took place in the past year and in a verbal shoot-out with Bristol City and Fortuna Dusseldorf, the club fancied their chances.

It is not unusual for Leeds or Orta to make presentations to prospective signings. In a recent interview with The Athletic, Orta admitted that Championship clubs face such severe competition that he now expects to be asked to outline the merits of Leeds over other suitors. But most transfers still follow the traditional route where a club accepts a bid and a player and his agent run the show from then on. Someone with knowledge of the process at Arsenal described last week’s pitches as “an absolute necessity”. No other Premier League side is thought to dissect loan bids to such a degree.

Orta’s presentation ran for a full hour, aided by PowerPoint slides and videos which are understood to have showcased not only Leeds’ style of play in and out of possession but clips of Nketiah depicting how and why their tactics would suit him. The upsides of moving to Elland Road were laid out in full: a season working with Marcelo Bielsa, home attendances of more than 30,000 and the exposure the club invariably gets through live Sky games. According to Angus Kinnear, Leeds’ chief executive, Arsenal were “categorical” in seeing Nketiah as a future first-team footballer. “They want him to be an Arsenal player,” Kinnear told The Athletic last week.

Johnson and Pfannenstiel made strong and positive impressions with confident briefings. Neither club were seen as unsuitable. Johnson had the advantage of being able to point to the progress made by Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham, who scored 26 goals on loan at Ashton Gate in the 2016-17 season, and City tentatively scheduled a medical for the following morning. It never took place. Orta’s extensive pitch won the day and by Wednesday afternoon Nketiah was getting ready to travel to Leeds and sign before the deadline. He underwent evaluation tests on Friday and, having arrived so late, was held back from Bielsa’s squad for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest. In spite of that, Arsenal sent a member of staff to cast an eye over him and the game.

Leeds have a rising star on their hands and Arsenal will monitor him closely, following his development and growth under Bielsa. Loan deals tend to carry penalty clauses if players fail to feature as often as they might and the punitive parts of Nketiah’s contract mean Leeds will pay more for the striker if they don’t use him regularly than they will if they do. Just in case anyone was under the impression that Championship football is their gift to give.

 

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One part doesn’t make sense, if Dusseldorf were at the front of the queue why did city arrange a medical? 

Nothing in that article fits the narrative of last week of arsenal assuring city that we were their first choice and the transfer being all but agreed before Leeds crashed the party, rather it paints a picture of Leeds having done their homework more so than us and Dusseldorf and city then jumping the gun in arranging a medical

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When all’s said and done, It’s not what you know it’s who you know. Arsenal’s manager and the guy from Leeds have known each other for a long time. You can’t tell me that didn’t effect the outcome in some way. 

I still hope it doesn’t go well for the lad at Leeds because of the way we were messed around. 

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21 minutes ago, walnutroof said:

One part doesn’t make sense, if Dusseldorf were at the front of the queue why did city arrange a medical?

Time frame that was left in the window probably, better to have it booked and not need it then the other way round

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If that's how it panned out, no wonder LJ was left feeling downhearted.

Interesting Arsenal are setting up a transition team...pretty much what Tinman is doing.

Just shows you how much work and effort goes into making a signing these days. Months of it. 

Doesn't really fit with the transfer window system as it stands...polar opposites.

I still think Afobe could work out a better option overall though. Fingers crossed.

 

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The more I get to know how the game works, the less I like it. I reckon being ignorant/deluded and keeping a distance is best (even if it means blaming, wrongly, LJ/MA/Bailey Wright for everything, poor sods). The fawning and bowing and scraping involved, while they demand an extortionate fee as well, to these almighty PL clubs, makes my skin crawl.

 

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Moral of the story? Be very wary of doing further loan business with Arsenal. If Emery’s dithering is typical of the man, and he has the last word, he could be a nightmare to deal with. The fact that it went to the wire after we’d been given reason to think we were likely to get the player seems to have had a distorting effect on our recruitment strategy, and left us scrabbling around for last minute deals. Why take the risk of a repeat of this shambles? Our well established links with Chelsea appear to be based on mutual respect and trust and we’d be better off cultivating that source than having to try to sell ourselves every time an Arsenal youngster becomes available - especially as, for all the supposed thoroughness and professionalism of the process, there remains the distinct impression that personal connections might well have swung it in the end. Screw ‘em.

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3 minutes ago, CliftonCliff said:

Moral of the story? Be very wary of doing further loan business with Arsenal. If Emery’s dithering is typical of the man, and he has the last word, he could be a nightmare to deal with. The fact that it went to the wire after we’d been given reason to think we were likely to get the player seems to have had a distorting effect on our recruitment strategy, and left us scrabbling around for last minute deals. Why take the risk of a repeat of this shambles? Our well established links with Chelsea appear to be based on mutual respect and trust and we’d be better off cultivating that source than having to try to sell ourselves every time an Arsenal youngster becomes available - especially as, for all the supposed thoroughness and professionalism of the process, there remains the distinct impression that personal connections might well have swung it I the end. Screw ‘em.

Those personal connections would , normally, make a difference. Fine margins but ultimately the trust between friends wins.

 

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It sounds like LJ, whilst impressing was ‘flying solo’ on the pitch and maybe MA was ,not surprisingly,  busy on other deals. If MA (our best closer of deals) wasn’t there then maybe that was a mistake on our part. If that was the case then I think we can be confident that next time he will be there for such a crucial deal. 

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22 minutes ago, CyderInACan said:

Pah. It's gone. Let's just hope we get Afobe firing - I think he could be a better bet over a long season of championship football. 

Love your optimism, Reggie, but I’ll wager a tenner that Nketia is higher in the scoring charts at the end of the season. Having said that, I like Afobe and, given good service,  he could well be a 15-20 goal man by the end of the season - if we give him the service and he gets his mojo back.

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10 minutes ago, CliftonCliff said:

Moral of the story? Be very wary of doing further loan business with Arsenal. If Emery’s dithering is typical of the man, and he has the last word, he could be a nightmare to deal with. The fact that it went to the wire after we’d been given reason to think we were likely to get the player seems to have had a distorting effect on our recruitment strategy, and left us scrabbling around for last minute deals. Why take the risk of a repeat of this shambles? Our well established links with Chelsea appear to be based on mutual respect and trust and we’d be better off cultivating that source than having to try to sell ourselves every time an Arsenal youngster becomes available - especially as, for all the supposed thoroughness and professionalism of the process, there remains the distinct impression that personal connections might well have swung it in the end. Screw ‘em.

It's quite ironic how it is being heralded as super-professional when a) Arsenal's treatment of the other clubs and b) this personal connection that may have won it for Leeds have little to do with professionalism whatsoever.

The article does a good job of dressing it up. Fortunately plenty of other clubs to do business with.

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Good insight into what had happened, its good to put some details to the scenario as when it was playing out nobody had a clue what was going on.

Leave Arsenal youngsters alone now, we cant be relying on them when their management is so indecisive. Time was running out for us and we are quite lucky to get Afobe in at such short notice. The best revenge we can get now is finishing above Leeds in the league and Afobe scoring more than Nketiah.

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4 minutes ago, Orbital said:

Love your optimism, Reggie, but I’ll wager a tenner that Nketia is higher in the scoring charts at the end of the season. 

Depends how much Leeds use him. The Chelsea boys got nowt and Bamford isn’t going to be saying ‘after you, old boy’. 

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21 minutes ago, CliftonCliff said:

Moral of the story? Be very wary of doing further loan business with Arsenal. If Emery’s dithering is typical of the man, and he has the last word, he could be a nightmare to deal with. The fact that it went to the wire after we’d been given reason to think we were likely to get the player seems to have had a distorting effect on our recruitment strategy, and left us scrabbling around for last minute deals. Why take the risk of a repeat of this shambles? Our well established links with Chelsea appear to be based on mutual respect and trust and we’d be better off cultivating that source than having to try to sell ourselves every time an Arsenal youngster becomes available - especially as, for all the supposed thoroughness and professionalism of the process, there remains the distinct impression that personal connections might well have swung it I the end. Screw ‘em.

Think in the final analysis it was the absolute detail Leeds went into on their tactics, strategy and video clips of how the lad played and how he would fit into their style of play.That and the obvious exposure on Sky (3x in first 3 games !!!) Plus the friendship with the Arsenal manager and a big cheque (over£3m)

Sure LJs presentation was polished but probably edged by the detail used by Leeds - maybe some learning for the City team.

Coming a close second will stand us in good stead should we call on Arsenal again, and good experience for future Premier League dealings.

 

 

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1 hour ago, walnutroof said:

One part doesn’t make sense, if Dusseldorf were at the front of the queue why did city arrange a medical? 

Nothing in that article fits the narrative of last week of arsenal assuring city that we were their first choice and the transfer being all but agreed before Leeds crashed the party, rather it paints a picture of Leeds having done their homework more so than us and Dusseldorf and city then jumping the gun in arranging a medical

It was probably their way of putting a foot down and implementing a deadline. Either he’s here at the medical tomorrow morning or we’re moving on. 

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19 minutes ago, Johnny Musicworks said:

It sounds like LJ, whilst impressing was ‘flying solo’ on the pitch and maybe MA was ,not surprisingly,  busy on other deals. If MA (our best closer of deals) wasn’t there then maybe that was a mistake on our part. If that was the case then I think we can be confident that next time he will be there for such a crucial deal. 

Pure conjecture on your part.

My reading of it is all competing clubs had met the financial terms of the loan, and this was a straight footballing conversation.  No need for MA to attend.

As Major said, we've come a long way and I suspect the personal relationship sealed it for Leeds.

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30 minutes ago, swanker said:

When all’s said and done, It’s not what you know it’s who you know. Arsenal’s manager and the guy from Leeds have known each other for a long time. You can’t tell me that didn’t effect the outcome in some way. 

I still hope it doesn’t go well for the lad at Leeds because of the way we were messed around. 

These are my sentiments exactly. It's a fascinating article but you can cut out all the waffle and pin most of it down to about two things: Leeds being a better side than us at the moment, and, most significantly, Emery's relationship with Orta. 

A few other points: 

- Leeds were said to have come into the frame at the last minute, and yet they scouted him 20 times? How does that add up then? 

- Why does everyone treat Bielsa like he's some sort of God? He hasn't won a lot in his career, usually resigns after about 1-2 seasons and bottled promotion last season. 

- If Arsenal's analysis was so thorough, how could they have missed Leeds' poor treatment of those Chelsea players? Then again, we've all witnessed Arsenal's misfiring on the pitch over the last 15 years. 

I think we're probably better off without Nketiah anyway. It sounds like there's hell of a lot of baggage and unwanted publicity surrounding him. 

 

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Seems that Arsenal have made substantial changes to the way they look at managing loans, and you can see this being the way that other top clubs will go.

It is interesting to read that clubs were required to "pitch" for the player, part of which presumably would be indicating how they would "look after him" while on loan. That being the case, it is a little strange that Leeds' track record in handling the three Chelsea loanees contrasts so markedly from our handling of Tammy, Kalas and Dasilva. I see that another poster commented that LJ flew "solo", but in the case of Tammy's loan, it was stated at the time that it was LJ's meeting with the player and his family that convinced him that we were the right place to come. 

In light of this it is hard to look past Emry's previous working relationship with Orta as being the clincher, although it is equally hard to escape the reality that Leeds' will probably be more successful than us, so giving the player more opportunities to shine, although it could equally be argued that Tammy's success in a struggling City team was the making of him!

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26 minutes ago, Johnny Musicworks said:

It sounds like LJ, whilst impressing was ‘flying solo’ on the pitch and maybe MA was ,not surprisingly,  busy on other deals. If MA (our best closer of deals) wasn’t there then maybe that was a mistake on our part. If that was the case then I think we can be confident that next time he will be there for such a crucial deal. 

LJ flying solo was the clincher in convincing Tammy Abraham, and his family, that we were his best option.

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3 minutes ago, AshtonGreat said:

 

A few other points: 

- Leeds were said to have come into the frame at the last minute, and yet they scouted him 20 times? How does that add up then? 

- Why does everyone treat Bielsa like he's some sort of God? He hasn't won a lot in his career, usually resigns after about 1-2 seasons and bottled promotion last season. 

- If Arsenal's analysis was so thorough, how could they have missed Leeds' poor treatment of those Chelsea players? Then again, we've all witnessed Arsenal's misfiring on the pitch over the last 15 years. 

Leeds were doing succession planning in the event of losing Roofe.  That only happened late in the window.

Biesla is a respected coach.   It's all about the players development rather than winning things.  That's more of a consideration for an established pro on a perm move.

Yeah, an oversight on the Chelsea boys, but sound like they had reasons why the players didn't feature and these were accepted by Arsenal.  A message to EK that he isn't an automatic pick and needs to work hard too.  

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