'You can't be bitter in life': Ex-Arsenal scout Francis Cagigao on his sacking from the club

Francis Cagigao has spoken out for the first time since being sacked as Arsenal's head of international scouting as redundancies were made at the north London club.

Sportsmail exclusively revealed in August that the Spaniard was one of 55 staff members relieved of their duties as the Gunners cut down jobs to protect themselves from the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The scout unearthed many Arsenal stars including Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez, Robin van Persie, Gabriel Martinelli and current head coach Mikel Arteta but Cagigao admitted he was not bitter about being made redundant after nearly a quarter of a century in north London.

Speaking exclusively to European Football expert Guillem Balague for his YouTube channel, Cagiago said: 'That is not really a question I can answer. I think that's a question for someone else.

'You can't afford to be bitter in life and you have to have a thick skin and get over things quickly. I'm very proud of the time I spent and I'm proud of my personal achievements and I also very privileged to have worked for Arsenal FC.

'It was club where I was able to learn, where I met and worked with some incredible people over the years.'

Among other Gunners discoveries made by Cagigao include William Saliba, Granit Xhaka and Hector Bellerin and the scout's work was noticed by other clubs in Europe.

But the 51-year-old never contemplated leaving Arsenal despite offers to move elsewhere.

Cagigao added: 'Over 24 years of course I have been approached by a lot of clubs. For one reason or another I didn't feel it was right at that time to move to any of those clubs and I stayed at Arsenal.

'Arsenal is an institution and I feel privileged to have spent basically half my life where I also started my career.

'But everything has a start and an end, and you have to look forward and now I look forward to challenges because I feel I am now in a perfect moment in my life with experience and with a lot to offer.'

Out of his 24 years in north London, 21 of them were spent working alongside Arsene Wenger, who helped the Gunners to win three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups in his iconic tenure.

Part of Wenger's remit at Arsenal was to spot exceptional young players early on in their careers and develop them in to first-team stars. A lot of that work was done alongside Cagigao, particularly in the talent-spotting aspect of that philosophy.

'You need a manager who is prepared to throw them in at the deep end and this is something that Arsene Wenger was absolutely exceptional at,' Cagigao revealed to Balague. 'A manager who was fighting for championships but at the same time being prepared to throw those young players in.

'Yes, he was throwing them in because they had talent, but it still takes a very strong manager to do that.

'A lot of those players that went on to succeed had it not been for the bravery of the manager we might in some of those cases have seen their careers go a different way.

'Apart from the fact that he was an exceptionally successful manager and coach and a legend at Arsenal FC there are a lot of sides to him that people didn't know.'

One of those unknown characteristics included a passion for scouting, which made Cagiago feel more valued during his time at Arsenal.

The Spanish scout also admitted that Wenger was a funny character but also loyal to his players and staff.

He added: 'His humour, he was very witty, he was someone that would always listen, and someone that more often than not backed his judgement.

'He was loyal to his people and in my case one of the very important people that I had the privilege to work with.

'It's one thing to become a scout and then it's another to do it under someone like Arsene Wenger.

'There are two managers (Wenger and Alex Ferguson) that have shown in the past that they have great vision for the future and took a real interest in scouting and recruitment and I was very lucky to work for, and with, one of those people.'

As in any scouting job, there are always players who slipped through the net. For Arsenal, two standout stars who just failed to sign on the dotted line were Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique.

The Spaniard admitted that a work permit issue was the only factor which stopped Messi moving to Arsenal, while contract disagreements saw Pique snub the Gunners to move to Manchester United.

Cagigao revealed in the interview: 'Arsene has said that at one stage we were close to signing Leo Messi and although I wouldn't go so far as to say we were close, we were there or thereabouts.

'Discussions took place with his representative, but he had an issue with his work permit which at the time wasn't even clear in Spain where he was, so that was discarded.

'It's public knowledge that Gerard Pique was inches away from signing a contract with us, but he joined Manchester United six months later.

'There was some contractual disagreement between the club and Gerard's representatives, and it didn't go forward because of that.'