Ex-Arsenal chief Kieith Edelman has explained how the current board have “failed” Mikel Arteta and is “amazed” that people who are now paid a “huge amount of money make so many big mistakes”.
Edelman was Arsenal’s managing director during one of the club’s most successful periods, overseeing the construction of the Emirates stadium while helping with the iconic recruitment drive that saw them win two Premier League titles alongside vice-chairman David Dein and manager Arsene Wenger.
Under Arteta the Gunners look set to finish second in the Premier League for the third consecutive season, and Edelman believes the “board has got to be responsible” for their failure to win the title.
Edelman told The Sun: “I’m quite strategic in the way I see squads being built up and [Arsenal now] haven’t really built a balanced squad. They have failed on that front.
“If that happens, you normally fail. You get what you deserve in a competitive environment.
“If you look at the wage bill and the playing squad they have, you have to conclude that they’ve spent their money unwisely.
“At the end of the day, the board has got to be responsible.”
Andrea Berta will be announced as the club’s new sporting director in the coming weeks following the resignation of Edu in November, and will be charged with revamping the squad in the summer, in what Edelman admits is a big change from his day, when Wenger headed recruitment.
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The English businessman also revealed his surprise at the huge amount of money directors are now paid by football clubs, only for them to make “big mistakes”.
Edelman continued: “It is clear that the manager now, with all the pressures and all the strains, can’t do everything.
“He needs support in building a team and doing deals and transfers.
“When I first joined Arsenal, there was one executive who ran one of the big football clubs who said to me: ‘You know, if Wenger doesn’t win the league this year or next year, you ought to fire him’.
“He said, ‘It’s no good coming second all the time. You’ve got to win these things’. Fortunately, we did go on to win things.
“Quite often people who are running football clubs seem to lose what I call their strategic nous in terms of working out what it is they need to do and how to build the squad.
“There are a lot of people who do it very well. There were some very wily operators like Ken Bates (Chelsea), Martin Edwards (Man Utd), and Daniel Levy.
“And then of course, we’ve moved from that to large American organisations who think they know how to do football because they’ve done baseball or American football.
“I’m not against all that. I’m just saying it’s a change. It’s different.
“But it’s amazing how people who are paid huge amounts of money make so many big mistakes. People do lose their marbles a bit.
“It’s extremely important to be really thoughtful and strategic and not be too emotional.
“One CEO I knew used to go down to the training ground every day and had his initials put on his training gear, like one of the lads. That’s not what a CEO should do.”