Arsenal's legendary talent spotter Francis Cagigao is believed to be amongst 55 club staff made redundant on Wednesday afternoon.
The Gunners announced plans to make staff members redundant in a club statement with head of international scouting Cagigao amongst those affected.
It is also understood that head of UK scouting Peter Clark and fellow recruitment specialist Brian McDermott will lose their positions although redundancies are in a consultation period.
But it is Cagigao’s anticipated departure which has garnered the most attention with the scout unearthing Gabriel Martinelli just last summer.
He has also been regularly praised by Cesc Fabregas in the past, who he discovered as a youngster.
Back when the Gunners played Chelsea earlier this season, Fabregas marked Martinelli’s impressive goal by tweeting: “Francis Cagigao strikes again”.
When Hector Bellerin scored 20 minutes later, another played discovered by Cagigao, Fabregas wrote: “And Francis Cagigao strikes again and again. Legend.”
Speaking to The Athletic earlier this year, former Arsenal transfer negotiator Dick Law said: “Franny’s most outstanding quality is that his opinion always is on the record.
“The world of scouting has tonnes of people who will qualify their opinion. They’ll say, ‘This is a great player, but…’. With Franny it’s ‘this player is this rubbish’ or ‘this player is good’. And he stands by his opinion.
“In the world of football, that’s an invaluable quality. He has integrity. It doesn’t always make him right — but in football today, dealing with people with true integrity is rare.”
Arsenal’s move towards agent-led recruitment strategies has led to a restructure of which Cagigao seemingly no longer has a role.
With outrage amongst some sections of the Arsenal fan-base, here’s a look at a list of players Cagigao has reportedly been involved in bringing to the club over the years.
Cagigao had a close working relationship with ex-Chief Scout Steve Rowley, with the pair bringing in stars such as Alexis Sanchez and Robin van Persie under former manager Arsene Wenger.
The list dates all the way back to full-back Lauren and also includes current manager Mikel Arteta, who he was involved with running the rule over when he was signed from Everton as a player.
Recent additions Martinelli and William Saliba are also included on the list as well as Emiliano Martinez and Granit Xhaka.
Arsenal deals involving Francis Cagigao
- Lauren
- Cesc Fabregas
- Jose Antonio Reyes
- Santi Cazorla
- Nacho Monreal
- Mikel Arteta
- Emiliano Martinez
- Granit Xhaka
- Alexis Sanchez
- Carlos Vela
- Hector Bellerin
- Robin van Persie
- Gabriel Martinelli
- William Saliba
