“Unrivalled eye”

Incoming Arsenal chief Matteo Tognozzi has an “unrivalled eye for a player”, and his appointment could lead to vital improvements in the Gunners’ youth recruitment, expert Charles Watts has claimed.

Nearly three months after Andrea Berta was hired as Arsenal’s new sporting director, the North London giants are now understood to be close to sealing a deal for Tognozzi, who was most notably a scout for Juventus between 2017 and 2023.

The 38-year-old will step into the shoes of former interim director Jason Ayto, who recently departed the Emirates Stadium, and he has been credited for unearthing the likes of Dean Huijsen and Kenan Yildiz.

Speaking to Sports Mole ahead of Tognozzi’s unveiling, Watts revealed that he had only heard good things about the Italian from contacting those close to Juve, who were determined to bring him back to the club.

“I’ve been speaking to people over at Juventus, people who I have an awful lot of respect for in terms of their knowledge of the situation, and I have not heard anything bad about this appointment,” Watts said. “Again, it’s still not fully signed and done yet, but it looks like he will be coming in and joining the recruitment team.

“His eye for a player is unrivalled almost, there’s a lot of disappointment at Juventus that they lost him in the first place but they haven’t been able to bring him back. There was talk that he could well be the new sporting director there but it appears that Arsenal are getting him, so it’s exciting.

“He really goes for younger players, Yildiz, Huijsen, those sort of players who have come in at Juventus and been a success. It’s a good appointment. It’s going to be really interesting to see what Berta does with the recruitment team, just how many appointments he makes. Jason Ayto’s gone, he’s in a position now where he needs to add at least one but I think he’ll add more over the next year.

Watts: ‘Tognozzi is really exciting appointment for Arsenal’

“Edu really streamlined the recruitment network and did it well – the proof is in the pudding – and Arsenal’s recruitment has been largely good under Edu, but I’m interested to see if Berta puts more boots on the ground and goes little bit more old school than Edu, who is very analytical. This is a really exciting appointment.”

During the Arsene Wenger days, Arsenal were renowned for taking punts on young, unheralded players as opposed to paying big fees for superstar signings, especially following their costly move to the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners have since shifted away from that policy now that their financial situation is much healthier, although they have made few high-profile teenage signings of late and have also missed out on a couple of the stars of tomorrow.

Huijsen was said to be of interest to Arsenal, but the Spaniard was instead seduced by Real Madrid, while Manchester City are now believed to have reached an agreement for Norwegian phenom Sverre Nypan.

Asked about Tognozzi potentially elevating Arsenal’s youth recruitment to the next level, Watts said: “The fact that Arsenal are making this appointment suggests that they want to go down that route, which is an important route to go down because it has maybe been an area where they’ve needed to improve a little bit of late.

“Under Arsene Wenger they were fantastic at that sort of signing, but it has stopped of late so it’d be great to see them go back to that. Wenger maybe focused on it too much, but certainly go back to getting some of those sort of players in. If you can unearth a Dean Huijsen once every couple of years then it’s a fantastic position you put your club in.”

Tognozzi arrives in North London not only during a critical period for incomings and outgoings, but an equally vital summer when it comes to contract renewals for Arsenal’s core group.

‘Berta has a firm grasp on things at Arsenal’

Berta has already successfully negotiated a new deal for key defender Gabriel Magalhaes, but the Italian must now sort out the situations of no fewer than seven first-team regulars.

Thomas Partey is still in talks over an extension to his contract, which runs out on June 30, while Leandro Trossard, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly can walk away for nothing in 2026.

In addition, Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli are about to enter the final two years of their agreements, and Watts is hopeful that stability in the boardroom will make a positive difference in talks with players’ camps.

“You want to see that the club’s stable,” he concluded. “There was a bit of, I don’t know if power vacuum is the right word, but when Edu left I think that caught everyone by surprise and then you wonder how are things are going to go? Are things going to start to drift? You don’t want that at a top level club because it just breeds uncertainty.

“Arsenal brought Berta in, got it done before the window, he’s making his own moves and bringing his own team in. Everything I’ve heard about Andrea Berta has been really really positive in terms of what he’s doing, the contract talks, the firm grasp he’s taken. The way he got Gabriel over the line was really really impressive, hopefully that creates a snowball effect when it begins to ripple down to the other players who are in talks.

“There was a little bit of uncertainty for a time at Arsenal, but it’s beginning to feel now that it is stable again and that he’s really got a firm grasp on how things are going.”

After leaving Juventus in late 2023, Tognozzi also worked as Granada’s sporting director until February of this year, while he also held scouting positions with Hamburger SV and Zenit Saint-Petersburg.

> Click here to listen to the full discussion on Arsenal’s imminent appointment of Tognozzi

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