Meet Andrea Berta
A big examination of the new Arsenal sporting director's rise from the local bank to the boardroom, with a look through his record at Atlético to see how his preferences may project at Arsenal
“It's a problem you think we need to explain ourselves. Don't. To anyone.”
— Moneyball
The spotlight rightly hovers over players and managers. They’re who we pay to see.
But the architects of sustainable footballing projects often operate away from the floodlights, even away from press conferences, only lurking for the occasional direct-to-camera spot in a documentary, all while managing the untold complexities of modern football clubs.
We supporters confidently opine about who does what and who is to blame. But the truth is, we often don’t know. For starters, so much is dictated by the clarity, financial strength, and top-down cultural thrust of the owner and the club itself. You don’t have to look further than Old Trafford to see how managers with different systems, philosophies, ages, and energies can all feel similarly powerless against the entrenched atmosphere of A Thing. Culture eats strategy for breakfast, as the saying goes.
Beyond that, it’s hard to parse. Backroom decisions, responsibility, and blame are all wrapped in obscurity — usually by design. The beauty of this is that, as the executive’s career winds down, each can write their own tell-all book, taking credit for the successes and distancing themselves from the failures. It’s a foolproof system.
There is just so much mystery involved. Few exemplify it more than Arsenal’s new sporting director, Andrea Berta. He isn’t a club legend, a loudmouth agent, or a significant media presence of any kind. So who is he?
In La Liga, where more than a few, uh, vibrant characters operate, he has been regarded as “muy cerrado, no le gustan los escaparates” — reserved, uninterested in attention. A small detail in The Athletic was particularly telling:
Berta’s reduced role over the past 12 months was not so noticeable given he had always kept a very low profile … Berta rarely, if ever, spoke in public — other Atlético figures had that club spokesperson role.
Berta was contacted by The Athletic for this article but declined to comment.
His tenure at Atlético Madrid was not without fanfare, however.
Joining in 2013, he was formally promoted to sporting director in 2017-18, the same year the club moved into the Metropolitano Stadium — two moves that could serve as joint symbols of the next chapter in Atlético’s sporting evolution.
During his full tenure, Atlético have earnestly challenged the two-party system of Barcelona and Real Madrid, winning:
Two La Liga titles (2013-14, 2020-21)
One Supercopa de España (2014)
One Europa League (2017-18)
One UEFA Super Cup (2018)
…and making two Champions League finals. In 2019, Berta was named the Best Sporting Director of the Year at the Globe Soccer Awards.
He is now headed to Arsenal.
James McNicholas reported that “Berta was clear with those around him that Arsenal was his priority.”
The Emirates was always going to be an attractive landing spot for sporting directors. It’s a project on the rise, a lot of messy business is behind us, and the owners have a track record of sporting success elsewhere.
But the vacancy wasn’t without its complexities. Mikel Arteta’s success has earned him significant decision-making power, and there are several other key voices with overlap. Meanwhile, Edu left behind a tenure defined by success, progress, and outward-facing alignment, but the next step is more cut-and-dried: big trophies or bust. That’s an intimidating standard to meet.
So, let’s put one conclusion right up front: Berta is not Edu. The latter, the namesake of this newsletter, is an Invincible who oozes outwardly warm charisma. Every club video seemed to feature him putting an arm around a player, welcoming them into the Arsenal grilling community. The criticisms of his tenure, generally sparse as they were, were never really about personality or “culture,” but about outgoings, and perhaps velocity of deal-making.
Berta, on the other hand, is a quintessential backroom operator — seemingly utterly confident, experienced, and ruthlessly efficient at getting things done, but less concerned with making the public rounds. He is reportedly still gaining comfort in English as a language.
That contrast makes for an easy narrative, but the truth is probably hazier. (We’re working with partial information, as always.) Sporting directors operate differently from club to club and individual to individual, but however many voices contribute to a decision, the role remains hugely influential. That final decision — another £5m for Mudryk or not? Another £5m for Rice or not? — isn’t one for the spreadsheets. It’s just a human making a decision, knowing they may get it wrong.
As I wrote the last time we talked about the topic:
That sense of weightiness and confidence is important here. While player searches are “deductive,” the final decision is often “intuitive” — and the sporting director is often the one making that call.
As we turn the page, there are some open threads to our story.
Edu’s chapter left some plot points dangling. Where is the final phase? Where are the two biggest trophies? When is the next open-top bus parade?
With those questions in the air, the decision around a chosen successor feels all the more portentous.
Indeed, Arteta mentioned a “big summer” ahead.
“The way we planned the five first summers, they were going to be very big and they were going to have different objectives because the turnaround of players and the objective of those windows was going to be different,” he said. “But now when you are going to go again, we want to increase the depth of the squad but as well we want to increase the quality and the skills that we need to go to the next step. It’s going to be a big one and we are very excited about it.”
“It’s a big summer for many things because first of all we have to maintain the good foundations that we have and then obviously how can we improve and evolve the team.”
So we begin.
🤔 What does a sporting director do?
Back when the vacancy opened, there was another wonderful story in the Athletic outlining original candidates for the position. From that:
Sporting director is, by its nature, a broad position in which practitioners with varying specialisms can excel. Some are experts at talent identification, be that through traditional scouting or data analytics. Others are technically minded, spending their time on the training pitch, in close contact with the manager and coaching staff. Some are executives, some ex-players, some steely negotiators and others focused on building relationships. Arsenal must determine what blend will most complement manager Mikel Arteta.
While there seem to be a lot of cooks in the kitchen, it has sounded like a surplus at times. One area that has been greatly streamlined thanks to Edu: the “football intelligence unit.”
This was an overhaul of a setup which had become bloated and had a clear separation of power between the recruitment and analytics departments, which had evolved from the club’s 2012 purchase of data provider StatDNA. Edu sought to make that line invisible, to bring alignment between analytics and recruitment. Rather than the two separate processes existing on different wavelengths and producing different findings, they were merged into one entity.
It was known as the football intelligence unit. It may not generate headlines in the way a mega-signing does, but for the people operating within the new structures Edu created and built over time, it gave them a unified way of working that had been sorely lacking.
All of this has featured active involvement from not only Mikel Arteta, but his coaching cadre.
Members of Arsenal’s coaching staff have exerted an increasing influence over first-team recruitment. That came to a head late this summer, when the club found themselves embroiled in a convoluted deal for Joan Garcia, a goalkeeper at Espanyol in Spain’s La Liga. In the final 48 hours of the window, an exasperated Edu had to extricate Arsenal from that negotiation and pivot to signing Bournemouth’s Neto on loan.
Some of that unwieldiness shouldn’t be immune to critique, and one hopes that Berta can help clean it up. Because there is so much involvement from others, a sporting director must have the ability to build consensus and solve problems quickly.
“The hardest part of the job is the expectation to be everything to everyone,” said Matt Wade, former head of sporting strategy at Feyenoord, and current assistant GM at Angel City FC. “You are the leader of a multi-faceted department that covers everything ranging from guys who code data models to medical, performance, operations, coaching, recruitment and player development. You are expected to have a level of competency across all these things and develop people.”
Victor Orta’s description? “I feel like a bin.”
📄 A hastily-made job description
Last time, we created a sloppy list. Hear ye.
Big picture:
Identity: Maintaining and driving the club’s overarching long-term footballing strategy, philosophy, objectives, and results — and how they’re measured and communicated. (The ultimate responsibility lies at the top, while the sporting director can be viewed as a chief steward.)
Collaboration and Alignment: Working with the ownership, manager, scouts, and board to align on strategy, style, and decisions. Maintaining and growing relationships with the footballing world writ large.
Day-to-day:
Recruitment and Negotiation: Building the squad by identifying, signing, negotiating, and selling players to meet tactical and financial goals. (Renewals are one of the most important but undercelebrated parts of the role; Nwaneri and Saliba’s contracts, for example, are two of the most pivotal deals Edu has made in the last few years.)
Squad Planning: Ensuring balance, depth, and long-term development across all positions.
Youth and Development: Working with the Academy Manager, overseeing the academy and integrating academy players into the first team.
Hiring & Operations: Identifying and hiring staff, managing facilities, leading budgeting and infrastructure.
🍻 Agreement and alignment
The vision of the project can come from the ownership and board. The long-term footballing philosophy should come from a stable foundation of patient custodians. The manager should have an active, though not hegemonic, role in all of this. All parties should come with perfect alignment, but not perfect agreement. Why?
A Premier League manager shouldn't be deciding valuations, writing Python scripts, or watching 30 matches of some defensive midfielder in Belgium. With everything else on their plate, some reasonable boundaries should be acknowledged.
On the other side, a sporting director — or, God forbid, an owner or board member — shouldn’t be tinkering with specific tactics or lineups.
With this different information, context, and relationships, there will often be differing conclusions. That is fine and expected. But one hand washes the other; the important thing, if there is a disagreement, is to disagree and commit.
I said then that I’d look for a Big Person. Why?
Now that a compelling direction has been achieved, the next chapter can be written. In those pages, a healthy push-and-pull is not only to be expected, but desired. With so much empowerment through the org, a strong leader feels necessary — first, to serve as a shepherd of the club’s identity, then to confidently navigate the aims of all parties involved, eliminating any little decision-making inefficiencies that may have cropped up as individual responsibilities have grown. With mighty capable forces swirling, and the footballing world only getting murkier and more complicated, the situation seems to call for a leader who is worthy of some deference, not by default, but by merit. One who has huge aspirations.
How might Andrea Berta fit in?
👋 Meet Andrea Berta
Berta’s journey to becoming one of football’s big behind-the-scenes operators wasn’t fully conventional. As we learn in a great profile by the local Giornale di Brescia, he once handled paperwork at the Mairano branch of BCC di Pompiano, a modest bank not far from his hometown of Orzinuovi.
The big break came in 1999 when amateur club Carpenedolo took a chance on the 27-year-old banker. The decision, based at least partly on the “young man’s deep football knowledge,” turned out to be inspired. Carpenedolo rose from obscurity, narrowly missing promotion to Serie C1.
Enrico Viola, the former vice-president at the club, recalls:
“The credit for our rise was mainly his: he understood the needs of the group, and he had a great eye for players' characteristics. Carpenedolo was run by a group of entrepreneurs, and thanks to him, we were able to be both successful and sustainable.”
Carpenedolo’s success caught the eye of entrepreneur Tommaso Ghirardi, who’d just bought crisis-ridden Parma in 2007. Berta was his first call. In his debut season, Berta helped secure immediate promotion to Serie A, pulling off what his friend and agent Giovanni Branchini described as “a miracle, given all the challenges.”
Football being football, miracles didn't buy much patience; after a rough spell, Berta exited Parma under fan pressure.
Berta’s next step, at Genoa, saw him quietly dodge relegation battles, mastering the art of survival with low-key signings. During this stint, he reportedly cultivated a relationship with super-agent Jorge Mendes.
Some reports suggested Mendes’s recommendation proved crucial in 2013 when Atlético Madrid’s CEO, Miguel Ángel Gil, needed fresh eyes on talent; others attributed his arrival to the recommendation of former Manchester United and Chelsea executive Peter Kenyon.
However it happened, Berta arrived in Spain as an assistant to sporting director José Luis Pérez Caminero. By 2017, after absorbing Caminero’s wisdom (and probably some of Diego Simeone’s intensity), Berta became Atlético’s sporting director. It was a rapid ascent. The partnership with Simeone blossomed while Ángel Gil loomed large over everything.
Under this arrangement, Atlético entered that aforementioned golden age. Berta’s approach was methodical, closely matching Simeone’s philosophy of signing players known for grit, tactical discipline, and mental toughness — “Cholo players.” That relationship with an opinionated and powerful manager, which thrived for so many years, had no guarantee of success; in job interviews, Berta assuredly brought it up as an analogy for a future arrangement with Arteta.
As one goes through the transfer lists, one surmises that Berta may have started taking a slightly more expansive view as to what a “Cholo player” was, which could have caused tensions. One example is Arthur Vermeeren, a young midfielder from Belgium, and a player I was personally enthusiastic about. He seemed like a typical Brighton-style signing, acquired from Royal Antwerp in January 2024 for approximately €18 million. Despite his potential, Simeone gave him limited playing time, totaling only 160 minutes across five matches. He’s now out the door.
In his farewell, Berta remarked:
“Time passes for everyone, and it has been understood that this is the moment to write separate chapters.”
After 11 eventful years, he asked fans simply to remember him as “one of their own.”
The Athletic hinted at diminished responsibilities during his later reign, suggesting a power shift towards new arrival Carlos Bucero, a Mendes associate tasked with revamping Atlético's structure. According to Relovo, internal relationships had cooled— his previously strong ties with players had waned, signalling the inevitable end of a fruitful but draining chapter. Gil Marín sought a new direction.
Still, Berta's legacy at Atlético endures, built not just on trophies but on a sustainable model of consistency. No dips, no rebuilds. Just continual success, season after season. In his decade with the club, Atlético never finished below fourth.
As he now prepares to take on Arsenal’s challenge, the former humble banker faces a new challenge.
📊 Comparing budgets
Making the Champions League isn’t just about prestige. It’s about money. The financial windfall from twelve consecutive qualifications — every single year of Andrea Berta’s tenure — has helped buoy Atlético’s budget during complicated times.
A ~€400+ million debt still looms over the club as of this season. The 2017 move from the Vicente Calderón to the Metropolitano was a transformative financial play — bigger, more modern, more profitable — but it also meant taking on significant obligations.
Atlético remain firmly established as Spain’s third-richest club, generating €358 million in revenue in 2022-23. That places them well ahead of Valencia and Sevilla, but still miles behind Real Madrid (€755m) and Barcelona (€426m) in spending power. The gap isn’t just symbolic; La Liga’s salary cap restricts Atleti to €311 million, keeping them competitive but forcing them to be more creative in squad-building. Through it all, Berta has been the architect of Atlético’s financial tightrope walk, navigating the complexities of these restrictions while keeping the club a perennial Champions League contender.
Looking back, the Deloitte Money League snapshot from 2017 placed Atlético 13th in the world for revenue, with €272.5 million brought in that year. That figure had grown dramatically from just €120 million in 2012/13, reflecting the club’s sustained push toward the top.
A major factor is that Champions League success. Atlético had reached the 2016 Champions League final, and deep runs in Europe’s elite competition continued to fuel revenue growth. But the numbers tell another clear truth — they were still operating in a different stratosphere than their two primary rivals.
At that time, Arsenal ranked 6th with €487.6 million in revenue — nearly double Atlético’s. The Premier League’s financial dominance, with its broadcasting deals dwarfing those in Spain, meant that even a club like Arsenal had significantly more money to work with. Atlético, despite their sporting success, had fewer avenues for revenue.
As we expand the view to include every year since Berta was originally hired at Atlético, we see steady, year-over-year growth in revenues, though not at the exponential levels of some rivals.
Atlético have reached a commendable level and entrenched it.
By 2019, the growth chart told a compelling story, as we saw in Swiss Ramble’s public analysis of that time.
The biggest gains came from commercial deals and broadcasting, though matchday income also grew significantly post-Metropolitano. The stadium move had delivered on the revenue side.
This chart ultimately tells that story.
But then things got more challenging. With some of those huge sales behind them, COVID had a big impact, leading to a one-year €98m loss. As a result, the club had to tighten its belt.
From 2021 to 2024, Berta oversaw a period of controlled, efficient spending, keeping net transfer outlay under €60m across three seasons. There were frees (Witsel, Azpilicueta, etc), buy-backs (Griezmann), discount deals, smart loans, and flips (Cunha). Two of the bigger outlays were successful: Rodrigo de Paul and Nahuel Molina. (It’s almost impossible to picture De Paul playing somewhere else). The club had to use every method at its disposal to keep its level, which enabled the spending spree of last summer.
That might be the period that I’m most impressed by for Berta: he oversaw years of austere spending, while helping the club reach the Champions League every year and getting back on sound financial footing. As I was wrapping up this piece, I saw Swiss Ramble just posted a new in-depth recap of the financial picture. I’d encourage you to subscribe and read it in full.
Net transfer spends are more modest in La Liga, and far different from many of the other power players throughout Europe (specifically, the Premier League). This will be one of the biggest changes as he makes his move.
Here’s how it’s turned out.
There are some interesting parallels with Arsenal. Both clubs spent much of the 2010s juggling elite ambitions with financial limitations — Arsenal under the austerity measures of the post-Emirates move, Atlético under debt pressures. But while Arsenal pivoted to more aggressive investment, Atlético have often been more required to balance things out on net spend — and have been one of the most successful clubs in the world at outgoings. It’s unclear how much Berta had to do with the more Premier Leaguey summer of 23/24.
Generally speaking, Berta’s approach remained resourceful and sometimes ruthless, keeping Atlético competitive even in a financial league of their own — wedged between the superclubs and everyone else.
📊 Six observations from Berta’s transfer business at Atleti
To get our head around his previous work, I wanted to zoom out and look for some patterns. This is with a couple of different caveats.
First, the financial realities at Atleti are different than they are at Arsenal, so he may have sought different deals there than he would here.
Second, and more important: there are different human factors in play. It can be hard to disentangle his work from some of the other power brokers (specifically, Simeone and Gil Marín). Berta also had a lot of influence in the few years before he was promoted to sporting director, but less control.
To start, I pulled a Transfermarkt list of all of his transactions.
Here’s a list of all the incomings since 2017-18. (Note: if you’re reading this via e-mail, you’re only getting a snippet; click onto the Substack website and you’ll see the whole thing). You’ll definitely have to hold your nose at the top. Things will definitely gain steam as your eyes scroll down.
…and here are all the departures.
And finally, the loans — plentiful in number.
As we look for patterns, we see that Berta’s transfer approach generally reflects a disciplined, calculated strategy — one that values timely (and large) sales, immediate reinvestment, and a healthy blend of small and savvy moves … all balanced with the occasional big risk.
I’m not going to comment on every deal (nor am I an expert on every one), but I thought I’d share a few things that caught my eye while going through his record.
1. Calculated mid-sized bets
There were a lot of precise, reasonable-sized investments that blended immediate readiness with future potential. This is the investment area where I find the best value in general (ask Brighton), but Berta’s record here is full of hits.
A few worth discussing:
Rodri (€20m from Villarreal) — Rodri was originally released from Atlético’s youth system for a lack of physical strength, but he sprouted up quickly and skipped levels to thrive at Villarreal. Berta did something he has done often: he re-engaged with an old player and brokered a reunion. Rodri started for one season, then was sold to Man City for €70m. Any time you can sign a Ballon d'Or winner for €20m, and/or turn a €50m profit in a year, you’re free to gloat.
Marcos Llorente (€30m from Real Madrid) — A non-trivial gamble given his lack of playing time in Real Madrid (he was 24 and hadn’t yet notched a career goal, for example). He became one of Atleti’s most effective and versatile players. Was a big part of the 2020-21 title win.
Rodrigo De Paul (~€35m from Udinese) — Important, pure Simeone player, and a decent coup of a signing.
Kieran Trippier (€22m from Spurs) — Immediate starter, boosted squad experience, flipped to Newcastle in 2022.
Mario Hermoso (€25m from Espanyol) — Rotational CB/LB who has stuck around. Good value across seasons.
Nahuel Molina (~€20m from Udinese) — Some mixed performances, as far as I can tell, but has made 85+ appearances over three years. Adaptable and a World Cup winner as a starter (remember the interplay goal that Messi threaded through for him?).
Matheus Cunha (€26m from Hertha) — Showed a lot of promise in Germany, but didn’t quite work in Madrid, and was flipped to Wolves for €50m. May have been one of those examples of Berta targeting players against precise Simeone preferences; at the time, I was shocked at the pricetag that Berta was able to generate for him.
Samuel Lino (€6.5m from Gil Vicente) — Low fee, high upside, and he really caught my eye (last year in particular). After a strong Valencia loan, he became a useful wingback for Atleti.
Samu Aghehowa (€6m from Granada CF) — A pretty clean reason for faith in the talent ID here. Samu’s release clause was activated from relative obscurity, thanks in no small part to his one start in La Liga up to that point: a goal-scoring performance against Atlético. By most accounts, Berta had much less influence over the window in which he exited.
Some earlier deals (like Correa and Savić) likely fit into this as well.
That deal for Vermeeren is the exact kind of deal I’d like Arsenal do ~1 more of; I was very high on him and his work as a captain at Antwerp. But that deal also showcases how hard it is to find a sweet spot for teams at the level of Atleti and Arsenal: if they’re not quite ready, they rot on the bench. Vermeeren is now headed off to Leipzig permanently.
2. Selling when it hurts
The other side of Berta's investment strategy has involved selling key players for large amounts when it feels painful: often at “peak value” or close to it.
The primary way this was done was through release clauses, a tool that is much more prevalent in La Liga than elsewhere. Virtually every player in the league has one, but they’re often set at absurdly high numbers as not to matter in an effective way (Vini’s €1b release clause, por ejemplo).
Berta seemingly tries to find a sweet spot: high enough to protect his assets, but not so high that clubs won’t be tempted to splurge. This has resulted in one of the best sales records in world football.
Here are a few examples (again, not all-inclusive):
Antoine Griezmann (€120m to Barcelona, later re-signed for ~€20m total) — Maybe the ultimate example. Griezmann was instrumental in Simeone’s tactical setup, but Atlético took the substantial windfall and immediately reallocated funds into players like João Félix, Marcos Llorente, and Mario Hermoso. The net proceeds were something like €100m.
Rodri (€70m to Man City) — Only spent a season in Madrid, but was flipped for a huge profit.
Lucas Hernández (€80m to Bayern) — Another case of a healthy release clause, Hernández is the second-largest Bundesliga signing in history after Harry Kane. Injury issues at Bayern meant Atleti came out on top.
Thomas Partey (€50m to Arsenal) — You remember. Atleti reinvested in De Paul, Carrasco.
Matheus Cunha (€50m to Wolves) — From fringe status to big sale; Cunha was loaned with an obligation, and it was one that felt awfully high at the time.
Renan Lodi (€20.6m to Marseille) — Inconsistent play, but Atleti got a nice loan fee, then a healthy fee-fee for him after that.
João Félix (€52m to Chelsea) — In truth, does not really count for “selling when it hurts.” Dramatically underperformed his €120m fee. For whatever other chicanery was in play here, recouping over half the initial investment was a success.
Álvaro Morata (€13m to Milan, now Fenerbahçe) — Final offload in a long saga of loans and partial buys.
Arsenal were just not in a great position to sell for several years, and Berta did have some fortune here. That said, there is a certain complexity of deal — wrought with financial creativity, immediacy, and superagents — that Berta seems especially comfortable with.
3. Free transfers, reacquisitions, and veteran balancing
One of the notable features of Berta’s tenure was his willingness to loiter in the bazaar for cut-rate deals, often completing his squads with free transfers or discounted veterans. He also has a history of reunions.
A few highlights:
Luis Suárez (€9m) – Came aboard for the title-winning season. Perfect mix of timing, role, and motivation.
Axel Witsel (Free) — Veteran utility across midfield and backline.
César Azpilicueta (Free) — Has played a decent amount while adding experience and professionalism.
Memphis Depay (€3m) — Spot contributor in short spells.
Yannick Carrasco (Reacquired) — Sold to China for €30m, brought back for ~€27m.
Griezmann (Reacquired) — Bought back at a fraction of the cost, stayed productive.
Héctor Herrera (Free) — Herrera had a nuanced tenure, faced with stiff competition and some injuries. But he ultimately made 58 appearances, provided flexible depth, and won a title … all without a fee.
There are a lot more of these.
4. Occasional big swings
While generally prudent, Berta wasn’t afraid to make big bets when reinvesting the sizable funds gained through sales.
Globally, the track record on large transfers is famously a boneyard. The record here isn’t much different, sadly.
Among them:
João Félix (€120m from Benfica) — Prodigious early talent, but the result was a huge fee, mixed performances, and a public fallout. The biggest lesson here, to me, is that you need the player to be more “de-risked” at that price range: Félix had only played one year of senior football, so was still in an “insufficient data” period, despite all his intrigue. Nevertheless, he sold for a healthy fee in the end.
Thomas Lemar (€72m from Monaco) — Yeah. Has had moments, but not worth the fee across seven seasons.
Diego Costa (€60m return from Chelsea) — His first stint at Atlético Madrid (2010–2014) went famously well, peaking with 36 goals in 2013–14 as he helped lead the club to a La Liga title and a Champions League final. He returned (expensively) in 2018 but struggled with injuries, suspensions, and declining form, scoring 12 goals over three seasons.
Álvaro Morata (€53m total) — Several loans, never totally stuck. Ultimately sold at a loss.
The defensive-minded club has been reluctant to splurge on defenders. Prior to last summer’s addition of Robin Le Normand, Mario Hermoso was the largest defensive signing in club history at €25m.
5. The loan army + deal volume
Berta also effectively managed an extensive network of loan deals, employing an array of moves to develop talent, manage squad size, and extract value. Over multiple seasons, dozens of Atlético players went out on loan, like Rodrigo Riquelme (Girona), Sergio Camello (Rayo Vallecano), Samuel Lino (Valencia), and Manu Sánchez (Osasuna). These moves had a triple purpose: player development, market exposure, and wage management.
A few others:
João Félix → Chelsea, then sold
Morata → Chelsea, Juve
Carrasco → Dalian, then back
Diogo Jota → FC Porto → Wolves → Sold
Gelson Martins → Monaco
Jonny Otto → Wolves → Sold
Nehuén Pérez → Series of loans → Sold
Matt Doherty → Nearly loaned in, then Tottenham terminated contract
Saúl Ñíguez → Chelsea (loaned out)
Arthur Vermeeren → Signed for €20m, loaned to Leipzig, sold
Samuel Omorodion → Loaned to Alavés → Sold to Porto
That Félix loan to Chelsea (with a €11 million fee) temporarily relieved Atlético’s wage bill. Similarly, Renan Lodi’s loan to Nottingham Forest generated €5 million in loan fees alone prior to his departure.
This deliberate use of loan arrangements meant Atlético maintained flexibility, avoiding long-term wage burdens, and allowing players to gain experience elsewhere. The misses (like Lucas Torreira) weren’t especially costly. The outgoing loans aided player development, market exposure, and wage management.
On that note, Berta’s approach has also stood out due to his sheer volume of transactions. Atlético’s squad under him consistently featured significant turnover, with as many as fifteen or more incoming and outgoing deals in several transfer windows. This churn allowed constant refreshing of the team’s talent base, a necessity given Atlético’s financial limitations compared to Spain’s two richest clubs.
⚔️ Atleti, Arsenal, and the youth system
I also wanted to pull the Transfermarkt numbers from the business over five relevant years (2017–18 to 2022–23) to get a clearer sense of how the situations compare.
In that period:
Transfer spend/year
Atlético Madrid: €191,930,000
Arsenal: €236,000,000
Transfer income/year
Atlético Madrid: €161,900,000
Arsenal: €90,498,000
Total transactions/year
Atlético Madrid: 63
Arsenal: 51
That paints a fairly clear picture: a more active, wheeling-dealing, bargain-hunting Atlético side — and one that’s also been far more successful when it comes to outgoings.
The youth integration gives a bit more pause. Where someone like Roberto Olabe presents as a romantic, almost philosophical proponent of youth development, Simeone has historically leaned on steely veterans, and Berta has delivered them. As a result, his track record on youth system integration is mixed at best — though there are some recent signs it may be trending upward (Barrios, Simeone, Riquelme, others). The track record on younger signings (like Samu) looks pretty good to me.
🔥 Final thoughts
Any statement about Andrea Berta beyond “he’s an enigmatic figure” should be held in some doubt because, well, he is an enigmatic figure. We’re working with tea leaves.
Where Edu brought visibility and warmth, Berta arrives with something slightly different — the calm, low-profile efficiency of someone who’s been making high-stakes football deals for over two decades. The gravitas, the steadiness, the willingness to share power with an involved board and a manager like Arteta — these traits likely made him a compelling choice for Arsenal, and vice versa. What others might find restrictive, Berta might find liberating.
One of the lingering unknowns is his relationship with data. The Edwards/Klopp dynamic is a model I love, but it’s unclear if we’re getting an “Edwards” for our “Klopp.” His track record shows calculated signings, risk-taking, and strong resale value — the hallmarks of someone fluent in analysis — but there’s no clear indication yet of a data-first ideology. That might reveal itself over time.
He’s also shown a tendency to revisit old business. If past patterns hold, players like Cunha, Vermeeren, or Samu Aghehowa could pop up again. That eye for talent, especially in less-obvious markets, gives me confidence.
The financial environment at Arsenal — more revenue, in short — should give Berta more freedom than he had at Atlético, where he had to walk a higher tightrope. Meanwhile, the Athletic says “the Italian executive is well-connected among influential European agents.” While there’s caution to be exercised regarding connections to super-agents like Jorge Mendes, I’m not sure he was the primary contact there, and a little more presence in those conversations couldn’t hurt. When people scoff at “Mendes Deals,” I may join them … but I’d still like to sign João Neves, ya know? We’ll see.
There was also an undercurrent at Atlético: Berta trying to inject more expansive talent into Simeone’s more granite style. At Arsenal, you get the sense that his recruitment philosophy and the manager’s playing style might be pulling more in the same direction. That shared intensity with Arteta feels like a natural pairing — two meticulous operators with huge ambitions and a steely, force-of-willishness to them.
A little TL;DR on my thoughts:
The big-fee misses are worth a pause. Context helps, but still.
His track record on mid-sized signings looks really strong to me. It feels like a really high hit rate across multiple positions.
He’s been one of the best in Europe at generating sales and extracting value from outgoing deals. As the squad rebalances, the summer ahead should feature a healthy amount of outgoings — and the speed of those deals matters. I walk into that with some optimism.
His full, open-eyed buy-in on working with Arteta is encouraging. Years of navigating Simeone’s demands could hardly be better preparation.
His ability to build deep, balanced squads under financial ebb-and-flow constraints is also impressive. He can do a lot of things at once, and the deal velocity looks strong.
Simeone leaned heavily on veterans, so you would have liked to have seen a more consistent path for youth integration. Still, his talent ID in younger signings gives me solid vibes, and one hopes that Hale End is fully platformed for success.
There’s plenty for Berta to adapt to: Premier League rules, new relationships — and even the language.
I like that he can maneuver out of mistakes quickly. He doesn’t seem satisfied with calling somebody “deadwood.” He works the problem and often finds a creative way out.
I wasn’t sold on Atlético’s summer 2024 window, which felt inefficient given the scale of the outlay. I was actually happy to hear that Berta had a more limited role in that cycle.
I have a gut feeling that there will be some surprises this summer. Berta isn’t shy to act, either with incomings or outgoings.
It was interesting to see links like Viktor Gyökeres crop up immediately. I used to say that he’d be perfect for Atleti, and now some buzz follows him here. I’ll write a full report soon, as I’ve watched him a lot, have some nuanced thoughts, and would like some more study time. Perhaps those links indicate genuine, near-top-of-the-list interest; perhaps it just means expanding final decision pools and not getting stuck with the target-lock that has dogged us in the past. I am intrigued about simply speeding things up and having more maneuverability, and pleased that the club ran a full recruiting process here before settling on new blood.
Ultimately, we’re still operating in partial light. The proof will be in the execution. The club must evolve to a final stage to consistently win trophies, and then it must stay there. As stable as Berta’s tenure was, the conditions rapidly changed, and he had to change with them: he had huge windows big and small, and had to secure the Champions League regardless.
Arteta is projecting confidence with his new partner.
“What I’m very confident about is how he’s going to make everybody better,” he said. “Because the way he is, the personality he has, how passionate he has and what he does – that’s what we need. We need new blood with people that are so ambitious that they are so attached to the football club and what we already do but want to add value.”
With a big summer looming, Berta may never say much. But the team he helps build will say everything.
I know the time is nigh on the name. I never spend any time thinking about it, sorry!
Hope you enjoy this piece. I'm around to talk through anything. Working through a Real Madrid one now. 👊
great article - my only concern is whether he’s the right person to quell some of Arteta’s apparent weaknesses - the over use of key players. The injuries have been. crippling and likely not coincidental. The power sharing with Berti may. therefore not be the best solution.