Arsenal: Stephan Lichtsteiner indicates key transfer change

Arsenal are closing in on the free-transfer acquisition of 34-year-old Stephan Lichtsteiner. It shows a key transfer change from when Arsene Wenger was in charge.

Arsene Wenger has forever been the man in charge of everything at Arsenal football club. He deserved that right. But as the game has progressed, the details have intensified, and the need for specialised experts in each aspect of the running of the club, the utility and efficacy of an all-powerful individual is somewhat diminished.

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And that is what the Gunners found with Wenger. The game had moved passed him in key areas. He was still, obviously, extremely intelligent, industrious, diligent and discerning, but the team was no longer competitive, domestic and European rivals had since surpassed the Gunners, and his work in the transfer market has been somewhat underwhelming.

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But Wenger has now departed. In his leaving, Arsenal have adopted a far more modern structure. Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis is steering the ship; Head of Recruitment, Sven Mislintat, is now in charge of scouting and highlighting targets; Head of Relations, Raul Sanllehi, is the mechanics of the whole machine, executing the inner-workings of the club, using his contacts and relations to enact transfers, contracts, and commercial streams.

And this new team is closing in on their first signing, according to David Ornstein of BBC Sport and a wide-range of other reports. 34-year-old Juventus right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner is set to leave the Italian club as his contract expired at the end of the year and has been in talks with Arsenal regarding a possible move to north London this summer. It is a very un-Wenger signing.

First and foremost, he is 34. Wenger, while softening on this approach in later years, often veered away from signing older players and would famously not offer more than a one-year contract to current players who were the wrong side of 30.

But more than that, Lichtsteiner is not known for his technical skill, his careful caressing of a football, creative or nuanced play. He is a hard-nosed, tough-tackling, ground-gobbling, industrious defender. That is not to say that he lacks quality, but his game was built on other traits, traits that Wenger would rarely search out in his new recruits.

This is not to say that Wenger’s way or the new way is better. It will take a number of years to fairly and accurately assess the transfer workings of this new regime. It is merely to say that they are different. This is a very different club now. It works in different ways, it looks for different things, it will play in different styles.

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This transfer change is something that many fans have been calling for. A noticeable focus on more than just technique, touch and talent. Lichtsteiner is proof that Gazidis wants to do this another way. Let’s hope that it works.