Arsenal are set to miss out on the Premier League title, which may put pressure on Mikel Arteta (Image: Getty)
will face calls to be sacked by if he fails to deliver a Premier League title, despite the club’s glaring transfer failures, according to their former CEO.
Speaking exclusively to Express Sport, Keith Edelman, ‘s ex-managing director and CEO between 2000 and 2008, claimed that calls to sack Arteta are not entirely fair because his bosses have not delivered the world-class players he needs to challenge.
The Gunners are staring down the barrel of another disappointing defeat in the title race with leaders after they moved 11 points clear at the summit following their 2-0 win over . , meanwhile, slumped to a 1-0 home defeat by West Ham and finished the game with 10 men.
After spending around £500million during that period, questions will arise about Arteta’s position. But Edelman believes it would be harsh for fans and pundits to pin the blame on Arteta when his superiors have recruited poorly, although the warned the 42-year-old to expect mounting pressure.
When asked about fans calling for Arteta to be sacked, Edelman said: “I think it’s a bit extreme. My feeling is Arteta is not responsible for the recruitment of new players and bringing a new squad in, that’s not what his role is.
“He’s not a director of football and it’s probably quite unkind [to call for the sack] if you’re not given the tools for the trade. You can’t cut the sandwich without a knife after all.”
He added: “I haven’t met him, but I’ve watched his football. I think he’s taken the club a long way, but they need to step up to the last one, which is to win the Premier League. That’s always the challenge.
“I’ll never forget, one of the very best CEOs turned around to me when I was at and said ‘if Arsene doesn’t win the league this year, you ought to get rid of him because it’s no good coming second all the time’. I was quite taken aback because Arsene had won the league before.
Keith Edelman worked as managing director and CEO of Arsenal between 2000-08 (Image: Getty)
“There is a lesson in that, though. You’ve got to get someone that’s going to take you to the pinnacle, not someone that gets you close to it and doesn’t get there. To repeat that [finishing second] season after season, you’ve got to sit back and wonder ‘well there’s something going wrong?’ Is it recruitment, is it the squad build, who is responsible for what?”
lost their technical director Edu Gaspar in November to Nottingham Forest, with interim sporting director Jason Ayto drafted in to replace the Brazilian. However, they failed to make a single signing in January, despite Arteta’s pleas for a new striker with and Gabriel Jesus both injured.
Edelman pinned the blame on ‘s hierarchy for the failure to put together a coherent transfer strategy and questioned the level of quality of players within the squad.
Arsenal failed to sign a deputy for the injured Kai Hv (Image: Getty)
“They don’t seem to have the strategy right for how they’re going to build the squad in terms of delivering the transfers they need,” he added. “I think they’ve failed in developing that strategy for bringing players in. The title challenge is withering out and they haven’t got a [fit] striker.
“When we used to build teams with Arsene, it was a strategic formula of how we would build the squad, and one of those was a world-class forward. If you look at all of their forwards, or a No. 9 equivalent, I don’t think they’ve got anyone world-class in that area.
“That’s one of the things they’re making a mistake on, you’ve got to use your money quite wisely, it’s a scarce resource. You’ve got to build a squad that works and they’ve got too many people in the squad who I wouldn’t have in there because they’re not young enough and they’re not world-class, or of that calibre.”
Edelman, now 74, has landed a new role away from football. He has taken up a position with the country’s leading keynote speakers’ agency, , to deliver speeches in the business world.
The collaboration will see Edelman become a leading speaker for the company, where he will share details and anecdotes from his wide-ranging career, which has encompassed working in retail, leisure, property, consumer goods, and across the media.