Arsenal: No way to know, but good hands seem to be in charge

Ivan Gazidis has departed Arsenal, leaving Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham in charge of the club. Thankfully, they seem to be very good hands indeed.

Arsenal are a very different club from what they were just a few short months ago. Arsene Wenger is now long gone. Stan Kroenke is the sole owner. Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis has also departed. If there were any doubts that the club wanted to change, they were very quickly put to bed this summer.

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As a part of this revolution — the club has been insistent that this period if more an ‘evolution’ not a ‘revolution’, but such is the drastic nature of the change, it is difficult to describe as anything else — Arsenal now have two leading figures behind which the whole organisation will now follow.

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Raul Sanllehi, Head of Football, and Vinai Venkatesham, Managing Director, are now the fulcrum of this club. For those who do not work in football, not much is known of either of these two men. But they are highly considered individuals that have been working at the highest level in the sport for many years. Sanllehi, especially, was a part of the great Barcelona machine and was handpicked by Gazidis to play a key role in the new era at the Emirates.

Both have conducted their first, detailed public interview. Speaking to David Ornstein of BBC Sport, both speak extensively about a wide range of topics, from their working dynamic as a pair, in which they both mention that they will be working side-by-side, to Ivan Gazidis, Stan Kroenke and the fans, and even Aaron Ramsey. You can read the full transcript of the interview here. I would greatly recommend it.

In the interview with Ornstein, both Sanllehi and Venkatesham display an understanding of privacy and a recognition of the importance of transparency. They are not drawn on topics that they do not want to discuss, but they do still provide some extremely interesting notes, something that Silent Stan has been heavily criticised for — they are aware that the fans want to know what’s going on and, within reason, they are both happy to let the fans in.

They speak with great poise and position. They know precisely what they want to say and what they do not want to say, treading the line between two beautifully. They are both extremely intelligent individuals and they have a clear, concise and committed plan for the future of the club — their unwavering belief in the self-sustainable model is admirable, even if you doubt the efficacy of such a model.

Moreover, their recognition of the role of the fans is lovely to see. This is a club that has so often been disconnected from the fanbase. The words that spew out from the owners and board members are increasingly difficult for the fans to believe because of the lack of integrity of previous promises, only adding to the sense of separation between support and club. Venkateshamn’s line, ‘these aren’t just words, these are things that are very, very important to us’ seems significant. Both he and Sanllehi understand the growing enchantment of the fanbase.

It is difficult to conclude concretely from such a distanced and early position, but it seems as though Arsenal are in extremely capable hands indeed.