Arsenal: Raul Sanllehi showing ruthless streak with Alex Iwobi sale

Raul Sanllehi’s decision to sell Alex Iwobi showed a ruthless streak that’s been lacking in Arsenal front office for too long.

Raul Sanllehi’s decision to sell Alex Iwobi to Everton was, in a word, ruthless. Alex Iwobi wasn’t just any Arsenal player. He was a prized academy product and among the last of Arsene Wenger’s hand-picked prospects to make the first team.

Iwobi did everything the club asked of him to the best of his ability, including playing out of position. In spite of this, Raul Sanllehi flipped Alex Iwobi for cash with all the cold-blooded calculation of a hedge fund manager.

A few weeks ago, I wrote that Nicolas Pepe’s arrival meant it was put up or shut up time for underachievers at Arsenal.  As it turns out, Iwobi didn’t even get the chance to fight for his place.

In response to that, I have only one thing to say: BRAVO!

Making clear-eyed, even ruthless business decisions about when to sell prospects is precisely what Raul Sanllehi is being paid to do. He did it with Kristian Bielik for a nice fee too. Carl Jekninson, lifelong Arsenal fan? Out the door.

They’re good footballers who will have good careers. However, as far as Raul Sanllehi is concerned, good but probably not great isn’t the standard at the club anymore.  Raul Sanllehi sanctioning the sale of Alex Iwobi sent that message out clearly to any up and coming Arsenal player. Bukayo Saka, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock are all now ‘on the clock’ so to speak.

That’s exactly as it should be at Arsenal.

It’s not difficult to imagine if Wenger and Gazidis were still here, Alex Iwobi would be too. Wenger had a notorious soft spot for his favorite prospects and Ivan Gazidis was powerless to curb this incredibly self-destructive instinct.

In fact, Wenger famously went to the extreme of refusing to consider options in the transfer market in order to hold first team places open for his prospects. Who can forget Wenger defiantly declaring himself right for passing on Xabi Alonso and Gareth Barry to maintain faith in Abou Diaby, Denilson and Alex Song? Gambling on good but not great players is what ultimately cost Arsene Wenger his career.

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Raul Sanllehi knows there can be no more tender hearts and soft touches when it comes to players like Alex Iwobi. By the end of last season, it was painfully clear Alex Iwobi was never going to work as a winger. Going into this season, it was unlikely he’d be selected in front of Mesut Ozil, Dani Ceballos or Joe Willock in the attacking midfield. This is why Raul Sanllehi made the decision to sell him. Sure he’ll have some good games at Everton, but not enough to justify Arsenal passing on the chance to bring in a potential match winner like Nicolas Pepe.

It’s obvious Raul Sanllehi’s time at Barcelona showed him firsthand how a club properly strikes the balance between giving opportunities to prospects and upholding first team standards.

Take the example of Bojan Krkic. When Bojan came up from La Masia, he was Barcelona’s top prospect since Lionel Messi. Yet, there was never a first team spot guaranteed to him. In fact, it was just the opposite. Durking Krkic’s early days with Barcelona, the Catalan giants bought Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez and then Luis Suarez to play forward roles path. The way Barcelona saw it, if Bojan were good enough, they wouldn’t have had to bring in Ibra or Alexis at all.

Raul Sanllehi would eventually play a big role in bringing Neymar to Barcelona. Incidentally, the Blaugrana sold Alexis Sanchez to Arsenal to offset the cost of acquiring Neymar. The aforementioned Bojan Krkic was sold to Stoke City for the same reason Alex Iwobi was sold to Everton. After a large sample size, it was clear neither player was going to crack the glass ceiling that separates good footballers from great.

Simply put, Sanllehi gets it.  He understands his job is not to be the doting grandfather who falls in love with prospects and their potential. Raul Sanllehi selling good but not great players at the height of their market value is exactly the kind of ruthlessness that’s been missing in the Arsenal front office since David Dein left.  Hallelujah.