Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone has had many familiar lieutenants on and next to the field during his 13 -year -old spell at the club, but he would have the new sports director of Arsenal Andrea Berta at the top of that list -despite the few participation company at the start of this year.
Berta still left the Spanish club with the reputation to be a polished professional who made more correct calls than wrong, never searched for the spotlights and whose prints on Atletico's most recent competition title in 2021 are, as well as their spectacular transfer company last summer.
The signing sessions from Atletico include Julian Alvarez and Conor Gallagher from Manchester City and Chelsea respectively, as well as Norway -striker Alexander Sorloth from Villarreal, and they still have triple ambitions in the last third of the campaign.
They are a point behind Joint Leaders Barcelona and Real Madrid in Laliga and follow their city rivals 2-1 for a house last 16 second stage in the Champions League. Overcome that short and they will face the new Berta team in the quarterfinals.
Berta played his role in the impressive company of the club last summer, although on this point he was no longer the only authority that the ins and outs of the club Plot about a steak dinner with Simeone and club director -general Angel Gil Marin. It was that modernization of the structure of Atletico, so that he wanted to continue in the Spanish capital after more than 11 years.
He will arrive in North Londs with recruitment, the absolute top priority for a club that has been coming in the course of five years since his last trophy and is sliding away a third consecutive Premier League title -this time almost exclusively due to the lack of investments in attackers.
Berta, 53, comes from a financial background. He worked in one of the largest banks in Italy, the Banca del Territorio Lombardo, but there was always a passion for football. He put together several amateur teams in Brescia, where his talent attracted the attention of the local businessman Tommaso Ghirardi, who owned the fourth-Tier Club Carpedolo and brought him there as sports director.
When Ghirardi bought Parma in 2007, Berta followed and later moved to Genoa, all the time he grew his reputation as a football -conscious, financially healthy manager.
In 2013 he met Atletico's Gil through a mutual contact, the super agent Jorge Mendes. First he advised Gil on possible signing sessions from the Italian market, and in 2014 he became the club's international scout before he officially took the role of sports director in 2017.
In 2014, the team had just won Leaga and wanted to build that success with a First Champions League crown. They would reach two finals and they both lose in the next three seasons, but they won the Europa League in 2018 and that second league title of the Simeone era in 2021.
Berta was popular with players and close enough to coach Simeone to be a regular customer in the dressing room of Atletico. He was also there in April 2022 Night that the Spanish side of the Champions League with Manchester City ended with a push and push match between different members of both clubs – and Berta can be seen landing on the face of Stadsdokter Max Sala.
That was a rare step in the spotlight and an equally rare show of emotion. Simeone appreciated the calm, measured analysis that Berta brought in most situations. When the intense Argentinian lost its second Champions League final to Real Madrid in 2016 and almost ran away from the club, it was Berta that sent him back on track.
Simeone went for three weeks without answering the phone to someone else in the club's hierarchy, but he regularly spoke to Berta. And it was Berta who helped him decide that Atletico could rebuild to go again.
According to Simeone's evaluation of him and the generally upward trajectory that the club was there, he was perhaps the best way to judge his value.
The assessment of him according to the hits and mistakes of the transfer market will occasionally miss the subtleties of that exactly sign who at Atletico. He was never the club version of Monchi – the famous sports director who inspired Sevillas over performance and is now in Aston Villa.
Berta is often credited with the signing of Jan Oblak for only £ 13.4 million (€ 16 million), but the arrival of the Slovenian keeper was not on his direct watch. He certainly cannot be accused of the disastrous recruitment of Joao Felix for a club record £ 106.5 million (€ 127 million) in 2019 because the deal was the result of Felix's agent Mendes and his relationship with Gil.
And although Berta is criticised in Spain for the signing of the then 18-year-old Arthur Vermeeren for £16.7m from Royal Antwerp in January 2024 (Simeone started him only twice in La Liga, and took him off at half-time of his home league debut) the capture of the player who has since been sold to RB Leipzig was Very Much a Team Effort Under Control of Carlos Bucero Who, in effect, had Been Brought in Over Berta to manage the club's transfer policy.
It was in January 2024 that Bucero, a former agent who had worked closely with Mendes, became a member of the club. Atletico thought that the wage account should be brought under control and the team had to be broken. Bucero was chosen to increase that operation and after an internal reorganization, Berta now replied to a new boss.
There was a genuine effort on all sides to make the reorganization work, but after years of decisions via the dining table with Simeone and Gil, Berta decided that he would not extend his contract that would be up at the end of this season.
By being asked Bucero to produce his best five options for a certain position, it was not the same as choosing the target and when arguing with the coach, he would always have his own preference.
He left the club in January knowing that after more than a decade of success in Spain, doors would be opened for him in another large club.
And at Arsenal, the recruitment process is hardly a simple task – Manager Mikel Arteta plays a crucial role in transfers, while there is also from above from above from Executive Vice chairman Tim Lewis and director Richard Garlick.
Berta replaces interim sports director Jason Ayto, who saw the club in January that ended with them that there was no option available to replace a decimated forward line – a choice that immediately turned out to be expensive when top scorer Kai Havertz was excluded for the season. Ayto was previously no. 2 for EDU, who left the club in November to play a role in the stable of Evangelos Marinakis from Clubs, including Nottingham Forest.
Berta will walk into a discouraging task in Arsenal and recruitment will be essential this summer and must deliver the striker and winger of world class that will end that five years of waiting for a trophy and progression in the Champions League. They also have four important men – Bukayo Saka, Gabriel, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli – who go into a crucial period with two years about their contracts, while the club is looking for improved conditions for Wonderkids Ethan Nwaneri and Myyles Lewis -Skelly.
But luckily for Berta, who has followed English lessons, Arsenal has a lot in common with Atletico – he will answer a passionate, driven manager who wants to become the first to place a European Cup in the trophy cabinet.
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