Arsenal’s summer is being judged through forwards, midfielders and defensive cover, but the more revealing move may be happening away from the pitch.
Matteo Moretto has since reported that Alonso will leave Granada to join Berta’s technical team at Arsenal.
That matters.
Arsenal are Premier League champions and European finalists, but Berta appears to be treating that status as a platform rather than a finish line.
The recruitment conversation has recently circled around player-specific calls, including the Manu Koné midfield deadline and the club’s push around Morgan Rogers.
Alonso would not arrive as another headline name for supporters to watch on a Saturday. He would arrive as part of the machinery that decides where Arsenal spend next, which risks are worth taking and which markets still carry value.
Why Alonso Fits Berta’s Arsenal Brief
AS report that Alonso arrived at Granada from Atletico Madrid in December 2023, giving him an obvious professional overlap with Berta’s Spanish network.
After Matteo Tognozzi’s departure in February 2025, Alonso’s role grew inside Granada’s recruitment structure. He worked with Miguel Melgar and the coaching staff on market planning.
The important detail is not simply that Alonso has worked in Spain. It is the type of work attached to his name.
AS credit his Granada spell with arrivals including Manu Lama, Loic Williams, Tsitaishvili and Luca Zidane. A financially restricted window then pushed the club towards lower-cost profiles such as Alemañ, Faye, Hormigo, Diallo and Izan.
For Arsenal, that profile is attractive because the next phase of Arteta’s project cannot rely only on premium spending.
Berta needs staff who can win in awkward markets: relegated clubs, distressed sellers, under-scouted age groups and players whose value is about to jump.
ReadArsenal has already covered how Manu Koné’s Roma deadline gives Arsenal a smart midfield transfer test, and that is exactly where backroom judgement matters.
The best recruitment departments do not just identify good players. They identify moments.
The Medical Rebuild Adds A Wider Pattern
This is not an isolated backroom tweak.
Arsenal have also been reshaping their performance and medical operation. Daily Cannon, citing ABC in Spain, reported that Real Betis head of rehabilitation Eneko Angulo is joining Arsenal after 12 years with the Seville club.
Standard Sport has also reported that Angulo is expected to join as head of rehabilitation, as part of a revamped medical department.
Put together, the pattern is clear.
Arsenal are treating last season’s success as something to build on, not something to protect passively.
The squad still needs elite additions, but Berta appears to be building a support network capable of improving recruitment judgement, player availability and long-term squad value.
That is how title-winning clubs stay dangerous.
They do not wait until the first team creaks before upgrading the departments underneath it.
ReadArsenal has already looked at how Morgan Rogers has become a major Arsenal transfer question, and those decisions need more than ambition.
They need better information, stronger timing and sharper internal challenge.
Arsenal Are Protecting Their Competitive Edge
Alonso’s possible arrival would also speak to a basic truth of the modern market: information is expensive, and timing is everything.
Arsenal can identify a £70million player. So can every other Champions League club.
The advantage comes from finding the same player earlier, understanding his development curve better or spotting the alternative before the bidding war starts.
Berta’s task is therefore broader than closing one or two major deals. He has to make Arsenal sharper across every layer of recruitment.
Alonso’s Granada record suggests experience in precisely that terrain: practical squad building under pressure, not theoretical scouting-room idealism.
ReadArsenal has also covered how Ayyoub Bouaddi’s first-team demand gives Arsenal a transfer warning, and that kind of case shows why the structure matters.
Top young players now judge pathways as much as prestige. Arsenal need staff who can sell the football plan, not just the badge.
Supporters will still judge the summer by the players holding up shirts. Fair enough.
But if Arsenal land Alonso, the more significant message is structural: Berta is not just buying for Arteta.
He is building the department designed to keep Arsenal ahead of the market.
