{"id":133931,"date":"2025-09-13T06:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T06:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/133931\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T06:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T06:03:10","slug":"former-arsenal-official-influential-in-martin-zubimendi-deal-set-to-become-brightons-technical-director-after-surprise-exit-of-ex-premier-league-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/133931\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Arsenal official influential in Martin Zubimendi deal set to become Brighton&#8217;s technical director after surprise exit of ex-Premier League star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-4461\/simon-jones.html\" class=\"author\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SIMON JONES<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  17:17 EDT, 12 September 2025   |  Updated:  17:17 EDT, 12 September 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Former <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/arsenal\/index.html\" id=\"mol-2c135080-901d-11f0-a94d-09d694d80a14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Arsenal<\/a> assistant sporting director Jason Ayto is lined up to become the new technical director at <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/brighton-and-hove-albion\/index.html\" id=\"mol-6b8428c0-901d-11f0-a94d-09d694d80a14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brighton<\/a> and Hove Albion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Ayto worked under former Arsenal sporting director Edu, now at <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/nottingham-forest\/index.html\" id=\"mol-2c14fe30-901d-11f0-a94d-09d694d80a14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nottingham Forest<\/a>, and was promoted into the position of interim sporting director after the Brazilian left in November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Ayto had been in contention to take the sporting director role at <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/newcastle-united\/index.html\" id=\"mol-2c14d720-901d-11f0-a94d-09d694d80a14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Newcastle United<\/a> but Nottingham Forest&#8217;s Ross Wilson is expected to be appointed there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He left Arsenal in May after Andrea Berta was appointed as Edu&#8217;s successor. The Italian subsequently took the lead on recruitment and contractual issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Ayto spent close to 10 years at the Emirates rising through the ranks to become part of the leadership team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He was close to being appointed Edu&#8217;s full-time successor but Berta was eventually offered the position.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-8fb6128367e84986\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102098323-15093689-image-a-1_1757711765129.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Former Arsenal assistant sporting director Jason Ayto (right) is set for a new role in the Premier League\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Former Arsenal assistant sporting director Jason Ayto (right) is set for a new role in the Premier League<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Ayto was influential in negotiations for Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He is now ready to take over from David Weir who Brighton confirmed on Friday that he would be leaving the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Weir, 55, is highly regarded in the game for the work he did as technical director and his role in their recruitment which has been the envy of many clubs in Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The former Scotland international centre back is expected to be in demand for offers but in the meantime Brighton have moved for Ayto as his replacement.<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DailyMailSport\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n  <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Former Arsenal official influential in Martin Zubimendi deal set to become Brighton&#8217;s technical director after surprise exit of ex-Premier League star<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By SIMON JONES Published: 17:17 EDT, 12 September 2025 | Updated: 17:17 EDT, 12 September 2025 Former Arsenal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[220,29199,97,218,115,221,217,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-133931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-brighton-and-hove-albion","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nottingham-forest","13":"tag-premier-league","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}