{"id":228274,"date":"2025-10-16T05:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T05:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/228274\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T05:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T05:20:06","slug":"chairman-says-arsenal-were-very-close-to-hiring-another-sporting-director-instead-of-andrea-berta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/228274\/","title":{"rendered":"Chairman says Arsenal were \u2018very close\u2019 to hiring another Sporting Director instead of Andrea Berta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Andrea Berta enjoyed an impressive summer during his first transfer window as Sporting Director at Arsenal.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian oversaw several headline additions such as the \u00a364m signing of Viktor Gyokeres and a \u00a368m deal for Eberechi Eze to significantly strengthen the squad for <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/mikel-arteta\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mikel Arteta<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Piero HincapieEberechi EzeMartin ZubimendiNoni MaduekeKepa ArrizabalagaCristhian MosqueraChristian NorgaardViktor Gyokeres<\/p>\n<p>However, decision makers at <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/arsenal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsenal<\/a> actually gave serious consideration to hiring Jason Ayto before <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/andrea-berta\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andrea Berta<\/a> \u2013 as Tony Bloom has now revealed.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btbf-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@BeyondTheBackFour?sub_confirmation=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">    <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"object-fit:unset\" src=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/custom\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/podcast\/btbf-title.svg\" alt=\"\"\/>  Click to subscribe to the podcast <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"object-fit:unset;height:30px;width:fit-content\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/custom\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/podcast\/youtube.svg\" alt=\"\"\/>  <\/a>Tony Bloom admits Arsenal were \u201cvery, very close\u201d to hiring Jason Ayto<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the Official Brighton &amp; Hove Albion FC YouTube channel, the Seagulls chairman revealed just how close Arsenal came to appointing the 40-year-old as their Sporting Director.<\/p>\n<p>Bloom \u2013 who has since hired Ayto himself \u2013 said: \u201cJason\u2019s been in football for a long time. He\u2019s been at Arsenal for a very long time. He had the interim Sporting Director role for nine months and did a really, really good job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe got very, very close to getting the full-time Sporting Director role at Arsenal. He has just got the skillset, we believe, in many, many different areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s seen (while) working for Edu at Arsenal how things work there. He can bring so many different experiences. He\u2019s a great man manager working in different areas. In a sporting context, a football club takes a lot of different skills, and we believe that Jason has started really well. He\u2019s only been with us for a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jason Ayto left Arsenal with a fantastic parting gift<\/p>\n<p>In his nine months as interim Sporting Director at Arsenal, the Englishman worked hard on a significant signing.<\/p>\n<p>The Telegraph claim <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/how-arsenal-outplayed-liverpool-to-secure-martin-zubimendi-in-a-year-long-transfer-masterstroke\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ayto played a key role in luring Zubimendi<\/a> to north London from Real Sociedad, lining up a double deal across two summer windows, signing Mikel Merino from the Spanish side first.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/martin-odegaard-says-mikel-artetas-bought-a-player-already-doing-incredible-things-at-arsenal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zubimendi has since shone for Arsenal<\/a> \u2013 even receiving a nomination for the Premier League Player of the Month award in September.<\/p>\n<p>Merino has also been a useful player for Arteta, scoring against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final last season while offering cover in both central midfield and at striker. <\/p>\n<p>Ayto clearly helped to deliver some crucial signings for the Gunners, which bodes very well for Brighton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrea Berta enjoyed an impressive summer during his first transfer window as Sporting Director at Arsenal. The Italian&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[4487,463,3339,403,99],"class_list":["post-228274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-andrea-berta","tag-arsenal","tag-english-premier-league","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}