Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta is attracting interest from around Europe, according to a report from France this week.
Santi Aouna and Allan Brevi report for Foot Mercato that Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta is attracting interest from several major European clubs, with Bayern Munich, Manchester City, and AS Monaco all looking at him.
Bayern are reportedly “closely monitoring” Berta, despite already having two sporting directors. Manchester City are interested in Berta in the scenario that Pep Guardiola departs, triggering an overhaul at the club. Then Monaco would be interested if Thiago Scuro departs.
There’s evidently nothing imminent in any of the three pursuits. Guardiola is unlikely to make a decision on his future until the summer, Scuro is still in place at Monaco, and there’s no hint that Bayern’s “monitoring” is about to progress into something more serious.
From Arsenal’s standpoint, it’s also not clear why they’d want to let Berta go. The Gunners’ summer signings have largely done a very good job, and Berta undeniably did well to get all the deals done.
It’s hard to think of a single transfer Arsenal wanted to do last summer, but were unable to do due to a negotiating failure. Berta was always ready to pivot to another target, clearly lining up multiple options for each position, but he largely seemed to secure Arsenal’s first-choice players.
That’s perhaps more important than how the players have actually performed, as Berta’s job is less about scouting, coaching, or management and more about completing the deals the club decide they want to do.
It’s been a similar story on new contracts as well, with Berta getting plenty of extensions sorted already.
The Gunners have also had quite a lot of turnover in their club hierarchy in recent months. Academy manager Per Mertesacker has announced his departure this summer, technical director James Ellis has left too, adding an exit for Berta would mean a lot of uncertainty ahead of the summer.
Unless there’s been some behind-the-scenes drama the general public are unaware of, it’s hard to see Arsenal cutting ties with Berta so soon after hiring him. Particularly to watch him strengthen a Premier League rival.