The Athletic’s James McNicholas has revealed some insight into Richard Garlick’s role as ‘the central figure’ behind Arsenal’s transfer dealings this summer.
Last January, Garlick joined the Gunners as director of football operations. Since then, Mikel Arteta and Edu Gaspar seem to have been designated with the most credit – or criticism – for the club’s activity in the transfer market.
However, while speaking on the Arsecast Extra podcast, McNicholas claimed that Garlick has also played a fairly pivotal role in business behind the scenes for the north London side.
In regards to the director of football operations, he explained: “He’s very involved. I just think Edu and Arteta are sort of sexier names, probably, in newspaper stories. But Richard Garlick is very, very heavily involved.
“He’s obviously not a talent ID guy. And I don’t think he really can take too much credit for the strategy simply because of when he arrived into the club.
“But in terms of the execution, and actually, the negotiations and the getting deals done, he’s been a central figure, maybe the central figure.”
TIF Thoughts on Arsenal’s transfer business…
As things stand, Arsenal have spent a fairly significant amount of transfer signings this summer. The likes of Ben White, Martin Odegaard, Aaron Ramsdale, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares have set the club back many millions of pounds.
Whether this is good business or not remains to be seen, but the club may argue that these players have been signed with an eye on a long-term project – after all, the aforementioned names before are all under the age of 24.
However, with no points after their opening three league games, fans are probably looking for reasons behind the immediate failures.
If things don’t turn around soon, Garlick could be the latest figure at Arsenal to draw strong criticism from certain sections of the club’s fanbase.