Arsenal have replaced Edu Gaspar. What does the new guy's CV tell us to expect?
Andrea Berta assumes the Sports Management - Club Atlético ...
Around midnight Greenwich Mean Time, white smoke poured from the chimneys at London Colney, signaling a new era at Arsenal: A new Sporting Director had been chosen.
Per David Ornstein, that man is Andrea Berta, 53-year-old Italian and most recently Sporting Director at Atletico Madrid for a nearly eight-year stretch that included a La Liga title and never saw the club drop lower than fourth. Berta has also previously served as Sporting Director at Genoa CFC and Parma Calcio before joining Atleti.
The broad strokes of the Berta CV are impressive: He worked well with a demanding and hard-nosed manager for a long time, running the third-largest of a big three to good results. He successfully offloaded a number of major players who were itching for greener pastures and, in a number of cases, Pogba’d leaders of other clubs who couldn’t get things right (Antoine Griezmann and João Félix being two notable cases where he milked bigger clubs for a lot of money).
Berta will likely take on a similar challenge at Arsenal, where he will be tasked with running a club that will never have quite as much to invest as Chelsea or Manchester City, and eventually Newcastle. As the club shifts more into sustainability mode over the long run, he’ll have to invest well toward the top end of the market while also finding opportunities to generate funds via sales where possible.
Of course, Berta won’t run a one-man operation at the head of Arsenal. Decisions will be committee-based, with Richard Garlick, James King, Tim Lewis and of course, Mikel Arteta all carrying weight in the recruitment process. But Berta will still bear a lot of responsibility for what business does or doesn’t happen.
With that in mind, I thought it might be a good idea to look through his time as Sporting Director a bit more closely for highlights and lowlights as we look ahead to what his Arsenal tenure may entail.
2017-2018 season
Vitolo was Atleti’s only summer signing this campaign, and he spent the first half of the season loaned out to Las Palmas. Despite being a useful multi-season starter for Sevilla, the player never panned out at Atleti and proved to be a bust, starting 27 league games there before retiring this past summer.
Óliver Torres was sold off the back of a good loan at Porto, and that ended up being a good decision. His fellow youngster Theo Hernández was also sold that summer for what was a solid amount, though in hindsight that one may sting a bit. Theo had just finished a strong campaign on loan at Alavés and would make minimal impact at Real Madrid before his illustrious career at AC Milan.
That winter was a little tougher. Berta’s first huge mistake came in the form of signing an aging Diego Costa, who had just scored 20 goals for Chelsea, for a €60m fee. Costa would unfortunately score just 12 goals in four seasons at Atleti, proving to be nowhere near worth the money and leaving on a free in 2021.
He also sold Yannick Carrasco to DL Yifang in China, which proved to be a good move. The Chinese club paid €30m and Carrasco stayed there until 2020, when Atleti would bring him back for €27m.
2018-2019 season
The next summer gave Berta the chance to make another big acquisition in Thomas Lemar, who of course nearly ended up at Arsenal. Instead, it was Atleti who bagged him for €72 million. And while Lemar has had some good campaigns at Atleti, he’s only started 20 league matches once in seven seasons. That’s definitely not worth the fee.
Gelson Martins from Sporting is the next big acquisition here, and the young attacker would be another who wouldn’t rise to the occasion in Madrid. Berta would loan him out that January to Monaco, and later find a happy conclusion there (more to come).
Rodri proved an excellent acquisition for €20m, giving Atleti one season of consistent starts before moving on to City for a huge fee (stay tuned again).
Down the list, it’s a little more of a mixed bag. Kalinić was another punt on an aging striker that didn’t work out. Arias actually started about 30 league games, so a decent value there. Then-24-year-old Jonny Otto joined Atleti but was then loaned to Wolves for the full season, but decided to join the English club in January on a permanent, netting a nice fee for the Madrid club. Nehuén Pérez was a promising teen from Argentina who go on a series of loans before being sold for €8m in 2022.
That winter, Berta and company would make a move to try and hedge on their Costa mistake, again raiding Chelsea for Álvaro Morata on an 18-month loan to the tune of €18m.
On the outgoing side, Atleti did well to get a few million for Vrsaljko, who would prove ineffective at Inter on loan. Gameiro had a few more useful seasons left at this point but the fee here was decent. Of course, the real regret is likely Diogo Jota, who sold for three times the price just two seasons later. But Atleti did double its initial investment, at least.
2019-2020 season
Now this was a busy summer.
Atleti brought in:
João Félix on a fee that ended up being way too much
Marcos Llorente for what has proven to be a good deal
Mario Hermoso on what also proved to be a good deal
Kieran Trippier on what is probably a net positive deal
Renan Lodi for what you’d probably have to say is too much, but they saw their way out of it (more to come)
Felipe on what proved to be a slightly negative deal
And though my screenshot missed it, they did sign Héctor Herrera on a free
Meanwhile, they sold some real key pieces:
Leading goal-scorer Antoine Griezmann
Top young defender Lucas Hernández
Top midfielder Rodri
Gelson Martins, who’d joined the previous summer but joined Monaco on loan, left for France on a permanent, €30m deal
While I think it’s possible to except Rodri, this is an excellent group of sales by Atleti. Griezmann would re-join the club later for about a quarter of the sales fee (including the purchase fee and a previous loan fee), Hernández’s value would never match the fee, nor would Martins. And to get €70m for a young DM after one season, even one like Rodri, well done.
2020-2021 season
A lot less going on here.
The Álvaro Morata loan saga came to an end after 18 months, only to re-start with a new loan to Juventus. So if you’re keeping track, that’s €53m to acquire him, and so far €20m to send him on loan to Juventus.
Yannick Carrasco is back!
Midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia also joined this window, and given he’d play some useful-not-great minutes over the next three seasons, this is a fair fee.
The real masterstroke here proved to be bringing in Luis Suárez from Barca for just €9m (Reminder: Barca had just bought Griezmann for €120m). Suárez would score 32 league goals in 50 starts over the next two seasons, leading Atleti to a league title in the campaign immediately after this one.
On the outgoing side, you likely recognize Partey, whose release clause was triggered by Arsenal just before the deadline. It was a bit of a blow but a decent outcome for Atleti, who’d brought Partey up from their youth side. Similarly, they made a nice fee for Caio Henrique, whom they’d bought from Brazil as a youngster.
2021-2022 season
The defending champs were again pretty quiet in summer 2021, but made three big incomings:
In Rodrigo De Paul, they’d acquired one of the hotter central midfielders on the market, and for a good value.
In Cunha, they committed a hefty sum to a young Brazilian utility knife attacker who seemed to be rounding into form at Hertha.
And they brought back Griezmann, who wasn’t quite clicking at Barca.
In the same summer window, they made just one significant outgoing move, sending Saúl Ñíguez on a loan to Chelsea that has become a bit notorious in its unabashed levels of disaster.
That January, Atleti also shipped Kieran Trippier off to Newcastle, who’d just been purchased by Saudi royalty and were doing their best to build a side sure to stay up. It represented a good outcome for the Madrid side, netting them more than 60% of their initial fee after 2.5 seasons of play.
2022-2023 season
There’s some really creative low-budget stuff going on here.
Witsel has proven to be a good free signing, starting more than 60 La Liga matches and nearly 20 Champions League matches in his three seasons since joining.
Lino, signed from the Portugeuse League, has been a great bit of scouting. Used mostly on the wing there, Samuel has been deployed as a wingback/left midfielder after spending his first season on loan at Valencia. He’s been good for Atleti, with 14 goal contributions in 35 league 90s.
Molina wasn’t a huge fee signing but is probably still what you’d call a mixed bag. He’s started 66 league matches for Atleti so far.
In winter, Atleti would bring in Memphis on a cheap deal as well as Matt Doherty. Depay would be fairly useful when he was actually able to play, while Doherty barely played before leaving for free that summer. The most interesting action is on the outgoing side, where Félix (on high wages) was shipped to Chelsea for an €11m fee. Given his very public falling out with the club, that was a dream scenario for Madrid. Atleti also found a taker for Cunha, who hadn’t caught on in Madrid, when Wolves took him on a loan-plus-obligation (stay tuned).
2023-2024 season
Basically the finale here. Again, Berta wasn’t given much money to work with, and he ended up turning again to the free market. Çağlar Söyüncü was honestly pretty embarrassing at Leicester, and he didn’t play much in Madrid before leaving for the Turkish league, a move on which Atleti turned a tidy €8.5m profit. Azpilicueta has been more of a veteran presence than anything else.
Galán is a player who’s been in Spanish football for a long time, and he’s grown into a solid squad contributor this season.
Griezmann, of course, was a key returning player for a fraction of the cost.
The really impressive move here, though, is Samu, signed as a complete prospect from Granada. He would barely play for Atleti, instead spending this campaign on loan at Alavés, before being sold to Porto in a deal that Atleti still has a lot of stake in.
In the summer, Atleti completed its excellent moves to sell Cunha to Wolves for €50m and Lodi for €20.6m, making about €71m on players they’d bought for €55m and largely not enjoyed having.
Later that winter, they forked over €20m for Arthur Vermeeren, a promising midfielder from Royal Antwerp. The move made sense enough but he couldn’t find minutes and was loaned to RB Leipzig this season.
2024-2025 season (summer only)
I think you have to look at Berta’s last summer window as a mixed bag. He did well to get €13m for Morata, who would be shipped off to Turkey halfway through the season anyway. He made a good deal for Samu that should bring more money to Madrid. But the real win here was getting rid of Félix. Atleti had wasted a lot of money on him at this point, but recouping €63m for such a high-paid player is a top-tier outcome (and perhaps something you can only do with a Boehly involved).
Incomings I’d also say have been hit and miss. Julián Alvarez has nearly a goal involvement for every 90 he’s played, making him very much a hit and exceeding my expectations.
Gallagher has struggled to really become the key, key player you’d hope for, though. Robin Le Normand came from Real Sociedad as one of the top-billed defenders outside of the top 3 in Spain, but injuries have kept him out for parts of the season, while Lenglet has found himself playing more minutes (so far, but not forever). Sørloth, meanwhile, has come up huge in some key spots, and while the fee seems steep, he’s somehow got 13 goals, which is kind of incredible.
Conclusion
As you can see, Berta’s time at Atleti was filled with some out-of-this-world signings and some duds. There were some that were very middle of the road. But for me, there’s plenty more here to be excited about that to fear. And what I like from looking, here, is that he’s proven decisive when things don’t appear to be working and willing to give something new a shot.
If Berta could put in a similar 7-8-year stretch at Arsenal, only a slightly higher-budget version of it, you’d definitely walk away pretty happy.