In January, Arsenal relied upon Jason Ayto as their stand-in decision-maker, who was Edu’s assistant before he decided to leave the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal never planned to spend big in January but the club’s decision to make no signings at all, one that hasn’t aged well, wasn’t necessarily the best audition for Ayto in terms of getting the job permanently.
That being said, Arsenal are pushing to sign Berta, a move which should be well-received by supporters in N5.
Berta recently departed Atletico after several successful years working alongside Diego Simeone overseeing a decorated period for the club.
Of course, were the Italian to join Arsenal, one of his first jobs would be signing a new striker for Mikel Arteta.
Antoine Griezmann
Fortunately, Berta has a long-history of signing superstar number nine’s, and it’s now worth looking at his credentials in that regard.
And we’ll start from the top: Antoine Griezmann.
Berta first signed Griezmann for Atletico back in 2014 from Real Sociedad for a fee of around €30m.
Five years later, after enjoying extraordinary success at the club, Atletico recouped four times their original investment when the Frenchman joined Barcelona in a blockbuster move.
Griezmann was the soul of Atletico’s attack for several seasons, a striker who eventually found his way back to the club, and he’s arguably Berta’s biggest success to date.
Matheus Cunha
Whilst he was nowhere near as successful as Griezmann at Atletico, it’s still well worth revisiting Berta’s 2021 capture of Matheus Cunha, the Brazilian striker who is now at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Cunha was considered to be one of Berta’s ‘flop’ signings at the club, a striker who made 54 appearances and scored seven goals for Atletico before being sold to Wolves.
Although, it should be noted that the Spanish side still made a significant profit when moving Cunha on, reportedly almost doubling their initial investment.
Cunha wasn’t quite the right fit for Atleti, but Berta still managed to make good of the situation.
And of course, it’s interesting to note that Arsenal are big fans of Cunha, a player they might revisit in the summer.
Joao Felix
Joao Felix is now a name that’s very familiar with fans of the Premier League, and the Portugal international was Berta’s most expensive signing at the club.
Atletico parted with an astonishing fee to sign the striker from Benfica in 2019, upwards of £100m.
And in hindsight, Felix is put in the same category as Cunha, as one of Berta’s failures.
Although, it would be wrong to solely blame the Italian for Felix’s move not working out – it was never really a question of the striker not having enough ability to succeed.
However, the fit just wasn’t right for Felix at the club and it was eventually a conflict with manager Simeone which led to the now 25-year-old eventually being sold to Chelsea.
Luis Suarez
After a couple of less successful deals, it now feels pertinent to pay homage to one of Berta’s best signings at Atletico, Luis Suarez.
Suarez joined Atleti from Barcelona for a relatively modest fee in 2020 and went on to star for the club when winning La Liga that season.
Deemed surplus to requirements by Barca, Suarez scored 21 goals in 32 league matches for Atleti and was the club’s highest scorer in their title-winning campaign.
And whilst it’s all very hypothetical for now, that seems to be the exact kind of deal that Arsenal haven’t been able to execute in recent years.
Were Arteta to have an experienced goalscorer on hand this season, Arsenal might still be on course to beat Liverpool to the Premier League title, perhaps something Berta can help change next season.
Julian Alvarez
Of course, when considering that Arsenal need to spend big on a striker this summer, it’s impossible to ignore Berta’s brilliant signing of Julian Alvarez from Manchester City last summer.
Berta’s capture of Alvarez was a huge success, a striker who cost the club a huge fee to bring in from Man City, but a deal that is already proving to be good value.
Interestingly, Arsenal were linked with Alvarez before he moved to Atleti, again showing a certain synergy between the club’s ideas and Berta’s previous moves.
25-year-old Alvarez has already scored 21 goals in 40 games for Atleti this season, a player with the work-rate and quality to thrive under Simeone.
And Arsenal fans might hope that a deal to bring Alexander Isak is soon at the top of Berta’s list of striker signings, a player Arteta would love to welcome to north London.
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