Football super-agent Jon Smith claims Arsenal are not spending heavily in the transfer windows like their Premier League rivals because of a 'Moneyball'-like system used to calculate the matrices of a player. The Gunners have been using this system since Stan Kroenke became the majority shareholder of the North London club.
Smith and his brother Phil owned England's first major sporting agency managed over 400 players at a time. The former has written a new book, The Deal: Inside the World of a Super-Agent is where he has explained how Arsenal's transfer policy is having an impact in completing their signings.
Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding, Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez have been their key additions in the recently concluded signings. The latter two arrive in the final week of the summer transfer window.
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Arsene Wenger has explained on numerous occasions that he is not finding a player who is worth his value. Smith has explained in detail as to what the Frenchman means in his new book.
"Since Stan Kroenke took a majority shareholding in the club, they have created matrices for players, a bit like Moneyball," Smith explained, as quoted 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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The Gunners have had an indifferent start to the season. After losing to Liverpool in the opening gameweek, they have gone on to register a point at Leicester before notching up their first three points of the season at Watford. They will now to look to kick-start their season with their second win on the trot as they host Southampton on Saturday.
