Jon Smith, who co-owned England's first major
sporting agency, claims behind-the-scenes
number crunching is behind the Gunners' search
for 'value' in the transfer market
Arsenal's refusal to match the spending of some of their
Premier League rivals is down to the statistics they use
to analyse players, according to an agent.
The Gunners paid significant fees to sign Shkodran
Mustafi, Lucas Perez and Granit Xhaka this summer but
Arsene Wenger had previously been criticised for his
refusal to rival the likes of Manchester City and
Manchester United in the transfer market.
In his new book 'The Deal', Jon Smith, who along with
his brother Phil owned England's first major sporting
agency, claims Arsenal's statistical analysis plays a
significant role in creating a valuation of a potential
target.
"Since Stan Kroenke took a majority shareholding in the
club, they have created matrices for players, a bit like
Moneyball," Smith explains in an extract published by
the Evening Standard.
"And if a player doesn’t quite meet all the criteria, the
matrix tells them not to offer more than a certain
amount. That is what Arsene means when he talks
about value.
“Four years ago, they bought a company called StatDNA
in Chicago, which owns an operation in Cambodia where
they crunch every conceivable number relating to a
footballer.
"They will take a player and collate data based on every
pass, sprint, shot, assist, goal - you name it - he has ever
made.
"These stats are fed into a computer that assesses
strengths and weaknesses against every professional in
the game before producing an overall value of that
player.
"Arsenal tend to use statistics to raise questions or
confirm observations on possible targets and
sometimes unearth players for scouting.
"There are occasions where it will cause them to re-
examine a candidate who has been scouted, but senior
figures at the club believe the data can remove doubts
that they might otherwise have had or encourage them
to sign a player from their rivals.
"Arsenal insist they take decisions primarily driven by
scouting, and the human rather than numerical
characteristics of a potential target. Ultimately all
decisions are made by Arsene."
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