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Steve Round shares if the signing of David Raya actually forced him to leave Arsenal
Arsenal’s backroom staff has changed quite a bit in recent years.
Jack Wilshere left for Norwich earlier this season, while Edu is leaving at the end of the season, a decision that left Arsenal staff confused.
18 months ago, Steve Round left the club under something of a mysterious cloud.
It was reported that Round wasn’t happy with the signing of David Raya before he left Arsenal, and that was a contributing factor towards his departure.
However, according to the man himself, speaking on the No Tippy Tappy Football Podcast, the arrival of Raya had nothing to do with his Arsenal departure.
Steve Round’s Arsenal departure not linked to David Raya
Round spoke about the rumour that he left Arsenal because of David Raya.
Arsenal signed Raya for , and the move was controversial due to Aaron Ramsdale’s brilliance during the 2022/23 season.
“Just to confirm, the rumour I read was that you left Arsenal because you didn’t like the signing of David Raya,” Round was asked.
“No, that’s a load of rubbish that is, a load of rubbish, that’s not true,” Round said.
Why did Steve Round leave Arsenal?
Steve Round didn’t leave Arsenal because of the signing of David Raya, so, why did he leave the Gunners?
Well, according to the man himself, there were a few factors.
The coach says that he felt the time was right to leave Arsenal because he felt some younger coaches deserve a chance.
Meanwhile, Round also said that he was also heading into the Technical Director arena rather than strictly just coaching.
“There was no arguments or differences of opinion or anything like that. I think when I first went in with Mikel, I said to him, look, when the time is right, I think I’ll need to move on when it suits us both,” Round said.
“We had a discussion in that summer and we said, look, I think it’s time that I went. We were both in that agreement with each other. I think I needed to step away from it and have a break.
“I’ve been on the front line for nearly 30 years and it was tough.”
“It’s a big one to walk away from, isn’t it?” Round was asked.
“Gosh, yeah. I think he needed to refresh his staff as well and promote a couple of younger coaches. I’d moved more into the technical director sphere, which is what I’m looking at right now. I just felt it was the right time,” Round said.
I was really proud of what we did there, really proud of what we achieved to go in and help turn a club around that was starting to fail and help rebuild and embrace the culture that was Arsenal and put it back on track.
“I was a bit gutted we didn’t win the league that year that I left to be honest, because we were really close here. We had a couple of injuries right at the end, which really stopped us.”
Round seemingly still has quite a good relationship with Mikel Arteta and the club, and who knows? Perhaps if Arteta wants to make any further changes to his backroom staff, Round could potentially return one day.
There will be a Sporting Director vacancy once Edu leaves, so perhaps that’s something that could interest Round and a reunion could be on the cards.