Unai Emery’s team is finally starting to progress, with consecutive wins last week and some overdue momentum, but away from the pitch Arsenal are as directionless as ever before.

The news earlier this week that Monchi has turned down Arsenal’s offer to be technical director, choosing to return to Sevilla instead, leaves their year of internal turmoil and turnover still unsuccessfully resolved. The sense that the club is still muddling its way through endures.

The reason that this is significant is that Arsenal were confident until very late in the day that they had secured the signing of Monchi from Roma. And that is why his late decision to reject them and return to Sevilla instead hurt so much. For Monchi it was a personal decision as much as a sporting one: Sevilla is his home and he wanted to go back. But it leaves Arsenal lost again, having failed to appoint their new technical director and wondering where to turn next.

This marks the continuation of the state Arsenal have been in all season, since Wenger was encouraged to step aside, and before Ivan Gazidis, the man who oversaw that transition, decided not to stick around for the aftermath and go and run AC Milan instead.

Back in November, after Gazidis left, Arsenal decided to create a new technical director role. The idea was that Raul Sanllehi would appoint someone before the end of 2018, who would oversee recruitment, the academy and the football side of the club. They could add more football expertise to a management team that sorely needed it.

Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment Show all 9 1 /9 Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment We rank every Arsenal player signed since the arrival of Sven Mislintat from Borussia Dortmund. Getty Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment 8. Stephan Lichtsteiner 5/10. Signed on a free transfer from Juventus, although far too slow to be relied upon as a regular first-team option. AFP/Getty Images Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment 7. Konstantinos Mavropanos 6/10. The first signing made under Mislintat's tenure as head of recruitment. Was sent-off last season against Leicester, but still only 21 with plenty of potential. Arsenal FC via Getty Images Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment 6. Sokratis Papastathopoulos 6/10. A reliable option at the heart of Arsenal's defence, but £17.6m was an awful lot to spent on a 30-year-old. Getty Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment 5. Henrikh Mkhitaryan 6/10. Arrived at the Emirates as part of the deal taking Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United. Has impressed sporadically but is yet to look anywhere near his best. Getty Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment 4. Bernd Leno 7/10. Forced to wait for his chance, but now Unai Emery's established number one. Has made the occasional mistake but settling in well. Action Images via Reuters Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment 3. Matteo Guendouzi 8/10. Pound for pound, arguably Arsenal's best signing of the last two seasons. Already a regular aged just 19 and a snip at £7m. REUTERS Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment 2. Lucas Torreira 9/10. Exactly the sort of player Arsenal have been crying out for years now. Not just a first-team regular, but utterly essential to how Emery wants to play. Getty Ranking every Arsenal player signed since Sven Mislintat's appointment 1. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 9/10. A fantastic signing, albeit for a hefty sum. Already has 24 goals in just 35 Premier League appearances and has developed a fine strike partnership with Alexandre Lacazette. Getty Images

The early favourite for the role was Sven Mislintat, the head of recruitment who arrived from Borussia Dortmund in November 2017, back when Wenger and Gazidis were still in place. Mislintat had been in charge of signings in 2018 and had impressed in that role. Pierre Emerick Aubameyang and Sokratis Papastathopoulos had settled quickly into the first team while Bernd Leno and Matteo Guendouzi, picked up on the cheap from Lorient, were astute signings.

But in fact, Mislintat was surprisingly overlooked for the technical director role. After the departure of Gazidis, who had brought him to Arsenal, he was short on allies and had not built his own power base at the club. Having been passed over for this promotion, Mislintat left the club last month.

Mislintat was Arsenal’s third major departure in nine months, after Wenger and Gazidis, and still left Sanllehi looking for a new technical director for the club. Monchi had been popular for his work with Sevilla and Roma and was the leading external candidate.

Sven Mislintat was controversially overlooked for the role, leading to his departure (Getty)

The others in the frame for the role were two old colleagues of Sanllehi from Barcelona: Andoni Zubizaretta, who was Barcelona’s technical director from 2010 to 2015, overseeing the signings of Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic, and who was now at Marseille. And Roberto Fernandez, another former Barca player who had been a director there from 2015 to 2018.

Then there was Edu, the midfielder of the Wenger era, who has been working for the Brazil national team recently and was under strong consideration for the role. And Marc Overmars, who played for Arsenal in the late 1990s and was is technical director at Ajax, where he had overseen the club’s revival in European football. But just this month he has signed a new long-term deal to stay in Amsterdam.

But now Arsenal have to consider going back to these candidates as they attempt to fill position. But there is a bigger question here than simply which well-paid football executive they are going to appoint. And that is what direction the club is meant to be going in. Without owners as ambitious as Liverpool and Manchester City, and without the experience of Wenger and Gazidis, the whole enterprise currently looks adrift.