In recent years much has been made of and said about Arsenal’s activity in that bear-pit that is the international transfer market. Often disregarding what money they actually had available. But could the latest arrival at the Emirates be one of the most important signing the London club have made recently?

Raul Sanllehi has, by all accounts, been known to lace on a pair of boots and take to the field as a marauding left winger in fun games at Barcelona between directors, media, supporters club, celebrities and the like.

It’s fairly safe to assume that it is not his abilities in on the pitch that have persuaded Arsenal to bring him to the UK but rather his new role in effectively fronting a restructuring at the club that many feel will propel the Gunners right back into football’s elite. And that it has a political nature to it -more on that later.

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Make no mistake, Arsenal’s gain is very much Barcelona’s loss. A source at the club said on news of his departure: “He has been doing a job that few people could do for more than a decade. He is savvy, brilliant at PR, an irreplaceable loss for Barcelona. He has the agenda and the contacts.”

In football as in life two of the most important things are the experience that you have and the people that you know and Sanllehi has them both… in spades.

Much of what is happening at Arsenal is political. Rather than recruit from within, and there is plenty of talent that could be maximised and used better, this looks like an Arsenal side that has very much – Wenger apart – gone back to the drawing board. And with Wenger at the forefront of everything. Does that really mean change then? We will have to see.

Sanllehi’s arrival at the club is the most important appointment in the new broom sweeping the Emirates’ corridors of power with new chief scout Sven Mislintat joining from Borussia Dortmund and former Team Sky commercial and business affairs director, the lawyer, Huss Fahmy taken on to focus on contracts

So just who is Raul Sanllehi?

Well let’s start by saying what he doesn’t do rather than what he does. The first misconception is that he is responsible for deciding who should be bought and sold and who shouldn’t. He isn’t.

What he is however is the main negotiator when a decision has been made on those fronts and probably the very best in the business at doing it.

He worked at Nike when he was headhunted in 2003 by the then director and later President of Barcelona FC, Sandro Rossell, to work at the club to improve its merchandising share of the market. With Joan Laporta in the Presidential seat and Txiki Beguiristain as Sporting Director his power base gradually grew until he became the main negotiator on matters concerning both new and existing contracts up for renovation.

One of his first major obstacles occurred with the appointment as President of Sandro Rossell who was eager to get rid rid of all things pertaining to the previous Laporta regime – Sanllehi included – and who also felt that he hadn’t been shown the required loyalty by him as he strived for the top job.

But he survived probably in no small measure because of Rossell’s reluctance to take on the job as Barcelona’s representative on the ECA (European Clubs Asociation) which is the organisation that comprises all of Europe’s top clubs.

It gave Sanllehi the chance to take on the role and with it came a worldwide influence and a contact list of football’s movers and shakers that was second to none. From that point on his international recognition grew hugely.

Needless to say when he joins Arsenal in February he will continue his connection with the ECA and also represent and support the London club with all international and domestic governing bodies.”

The former Sporting director at Barcelona now at Manchester City, Txiki Beguiristain says of him,”He is a great negotiator, constant, methodical. Fantastic guy, I get on great with him.”

When Txiki left he did not enjoy the same relationship with new man, Andoni Zubizarreta. When it came to the signing and negotiating for players two factions were formed from within the club. On the one hand Rossell and Sanllehi, on the other Zubizarreta and Bartomeu

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