Andrea Berta to Arsenal: Gunners' sporting director target "ticks a lot of boxes" thanks to Diego Simeone relationship

Andrea Berta's dealings with notoriously volatile Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone means that he "ticks a lot of boxes" in terms of what Arsenal are looking for in a new sporting director, Charles Watts has claimed.

The Gunners are believed to have entered advanced talks to hire the 53-year-old as their successor to Edu, who surprisingly resigned from his position last year to take up a role at Evangelos Marinakis's group of clubs.

Edu's former lieutenant Jason Ayto stepped into the role on an interim basis and is said to have been one of a few candidates in the running for the permanent position, a shortlist also comprising Dan Ashworth, Thiago Scuro and Roberto Olabe.

However, Berta has seemingly been earmarked as Arsenal's top choice, and while Watts has stressed that a deal is far from set in stone, he emphasised the importance of the Gunners hiring a new chief who is available to start work immediately.

"I wouldn't say it's looking like a sure thing, but it's looking the most likely for now," Watts told Sports Mole. "He's definitely a strong candidate. My understanding is that there has been no offer made yet to him or to anybody, but he is very much in the running. He's one of the guys on the shortlist that has been whittled down week-by-week.

"Josh Kroenke has flown in, the timing of his latest visit coincides with Arsenal looking to make a swift appointment now and get someone in place. And Berta is the guy at the front of the queue at the moment. But until it's signed and it's done and the offer has actually been put on the table, we'll have to wait and see on it.

Why Berta could be a better pick than Roberto Olabe

"He's available now, which is just really, really important. When you look at someone like Roberto Olabe, he's been very, very adamant that he's going to see the season out with [Real] Sociedad.

"So you're talking June, July before maybe you'd even be able to get him in place if you're going to choose him. And you're well into the summer window already at that point. Preparations for that have already started, but they need to really be ramped up from this point onwards.

"If you can get Berta sort of in position and ready to go ahead of the sort of official opening of the summer window, that will give you a real, real advantage."

Berta has been out of the game for a couple of months following his exit from Atletico in January, ending an 11-and-a-half-year spell in the Spanish capital having initially taken over as technical director in 2013.

During Berta's four years in that position, Atletico reached two Champions League finals and struck deals for Jan Oblak and Antoine Griezmann, two Rojiblancos legends who are still stalwarts of Simeone's side today.

Since Berta moved into the role of sporting director in 2017, Atletico were crowned La Liga champions in the 2020-21 season, are firmly in the mix for the title this term, and the Italian was also named the Best Sporting Director of the Year at the 2019 Globe Soccer Awards.

That was the year that Atletico made Joao Felix the fourth-most expensive player of all time, but the Portuguese failed to live up to his £113m price tag, while ex-Gunners target Thomas Lemar has also struggled to justify his £59.6m valuation.

Should Berta's transfer record be a concern?

However, Watts has insisted that those two deals should not be used to downplay Berta's strengths, as the fact that the 53-year-old worked alongside Simeone for over a decade is testament to his strength of character.

"I like the look of him," Watts added. "In terms of his resume and what he's done at Atletico, anyone who's gone up and maintained a working relationship with Diego Simeone for a long, long time, you're a strong character, you've got a strong personality to be able to deal with that because we know how intense Simeone is. That's a real plus point.

"Arteta is very demanding, and you've got to have a strong personality and strong character to go up against Mikel Arteta, which is really important. I think Arteta would want to be challenged as well. I don't think he'd want this yes man that a lot of social media fans seem to think Arteta would want. Berta ticks a lot of boxes in terms of what he could potentially bring to Arsenal.

"People have pointed to some of his big money deals like Joao Felix and Thomas Lemar that haven't worked, but you're always going to have misses. When you look at the vast majority of the deals that Atletico have done while Berta's been in charge, they've been good and they've maintained a really strong squad that's been able to compete with Barca and Real Madrid, even though being severely limited financially compared to the big two.

"So there's definitely more positives there from an Arsenal point of view. And I can understand why maybe he is right at the top of the list."

While a deal to bring Berta to North London appears to be advancing, Arsenal are also known to have considered ex-midfielder Tomas Rosicky, who recently confirmed that he was under consideration for the position.

The 44-year-old - affectionately dubbed 'the little Mozart' during his 10 years at the Emirates from 2006 to 2016 - is currently the sporting director for Sparta Prague and would follow a similar path to Edu should he return to North London.

Could Rosicky still be a genuine contender for the role?

Edu did not possess Berta's bags of experience when he took the reins, but like Rosicky, the Brazilian knew the club inside and out and made a success of himself in the position before his shock exit.

However, even though Watts is confident that Rosicky would be welcomed back with open arms, he does not see the need for Arsenal's new sporting director to possess a deep connection with the fanbase.

"I don't think they need a connection," he said. "It helps the fans if you're bringing in someone who the fans know and love already. But I don't think it makes any sort of difference in terms of the club and the job you're going to do. All the top sporting directors around the world, they don't really have too much of a connection with the clubs they're working in.

"Tomas Rosicky is a hugely popular player at Arsenal. And had he come back, everyone would have got behind him. But when you look at the jobs and the profile that they've been doing at their respective clubs, if you're putting Berta up against Tomas Rosicky, there's probably only one winner resume wise in that battle.

"When Arsenal started the process, they were working with a recruitment company at first to gather everyone in, there were lots of people considered and Rosicky would have been in that list. But now it's whittled down to the final few, I don't think he's there.

"He's dropped out of the running in a little bit, which is why, as he said, he was being considered, but he hasn't really heard anything since then."

Former Arsenal striker Jeremie Aliadiere also spoke exclusively to Sports Mole about the Gunners' sporting director situation, revealing that he was split 50-50 between two standout candidates.

Press play on the video above to hear the full discussion on Arsenal's sporting director search.

Written by

Ben Knapton