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'Unanimously we agreed': Arsenal's head of football reveals steps club took to appoint Unai Emery as successor to Arsene Wenger

Raul Sanllehi, Arsenal’s head of football, has revealed the steps that were taken to appoint Unai Emery as the successor to Arsene Wenger, saying the new head coach was the unanimous choice of all involved in the process.

Sanllehi, the former Barcelona director of football who joined Arsenal last year, said he “did not find one element of criticism” of Emery in his discussions with players, chairmen and technical directors who had worked with the Spaniard in the past.

He added that it was deemed inappropriate to include Wenger, who had managed the team for 22 years, in the selection process for the new head coach because they wanted the appointment to be made as objectively as possible.

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Sanllehi worked closely with Ivan Gazidis, the former chief executive, and head of recruitment Sven Mislintat in the search for Wenger’s replacement. Those three conducted interviews with various candidates before including contract negotiator Huss Fahmy and analytics expert Jaeson Rosenfeld in the final decision.

“There was a very high level but unanimously we agreed, all of us, at the first round that Unai Emery was the person that ideally would include all of the dimensions we wanted to lead this new project,” Sanllehi said.

The decision-making group made their recommendation to owner Stan Kroenke and his son Josh, who then held an in-depth meeting with Emery before approving the appointment.

“I myself have been through the process of selecting several coaches from my time at Barcelona,” Sanllehi said. “So I know a lot about what it means about changing coaches. The same case with Sven at [Borussia] Dortmund, he also has that experience. Everything is applied in that magic formula.”

Mikel Arteta, the former Arsenal captain and current Manchester City coach, was among those interviewed for the job at the end of last season. He had impressed in the interview process and was expected by sources at City to be offered the job before Arsenal instead decided to pursue Emery.

Sanllehi did not name any of the other candidates for the role, saying: “Let me insist, all the candidates were excellent candidates. And I am not saying that for the benefit of the ones who did not get the offer. But we were all unanimously clear that Unai had to be the first one. And of course he accepted the offer and we were very happy with that.”

Part of Emery’s appeal was that he was very complimentary of the existing Arsenal squad. The former Paris Saint-Germain coach told Sanllehi, Gazidis and Mislintat that he believed he could get more out of the current group of players.

“We wanted leadership, we wanted a team player, we wanted somebody that looked and had proven looking at the academies and forming youth talent,” Sanllehi said. “We wanted several things that went into the equation. Then we had a very short list. We had very in-depth meetings with all of them. We asked them to present to us what their project was, how they saw Arsenal, how they saw Arsenal in the future, what they needed from us.”

Sanllehi said Emery’s energy and work ethic since taking over at the start of the season has been “contagious” around the club. He added: “We are both Spanish but I did not know him personally. The football world is quite small so there are a lot of people of contact, so part of that process aside from the interview was talking with people of trust that may know the different candidates.

“The feedback I got from people who had worked with Unai was incredible. Always positive. I did not find one element of criticism. I am talking about players, chairmen, technical directors. I talked with a lot of people who had interacted with him in his time and it was very reassuring.”