“Sometimes you have to make unpopular decisions” : Arsenal sporting director Edu admits making tricky choices
Over the past five years, Arsenal have gone from a mid-table club fighting for the top four spots, to now competing for the Premier League title while finding ways to achieve success in Europe. The Gunners manager Mikel Arteta has been widely praised for training and developing this new young side, among other accomplishments. The Spainard’s efforts have received its flowers, although it might have overshadowed key contributions of others.
Arsenal’s current sporting director and former player Edu Gaspar joined the club in July of 2019 as a technical director, and made formidable changes which enhanced the club’s overall performance. He then became the Gunners’ first ever sporting director in 2022, and since then has made important signings which made the club even more competitive and a serious threat for rival clubs. Apart from this, Gaspar has also toned down the average age of the squad, while getting rid of underperforming players on a big payroll, like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and most recently Nicolas Pepe.
Edu Gaspar’s ideology of squad balance revolves around looking at the age, salary and performance of a player. Depending upon that, he determines whether or not to put the player up for sale. In a recent interview, the Brazilian spoke about the difficult choices a sporting director needs to make for the prosperity of the club.
“When you live in the football world, sometimes you have to make decisions simple and sometimes you have to make decisions even if it is not popular. When I joined, I looked at the squad balance, the positions, and the age of the group. There are three elements that you have to be really aware of. First of all, we have to see the age of the player. Then you have to see the salary of the player. And third, you have to see the performance of the player. If you have a player over 26 or 27 years, you need attention. If his salary is high, you need attention. And if he is not performing, you are dead,” Edu said.
“When I came to Arsenal, I saw all the squad, with respect, almost everyone was over 26, 27, on big salaries and not performing. If you have those three elements, which club in the world wants to come here and buy one of our players? No-one. Then unpopular decisions started to come. Because most of the players that have those elements, they have a fanbase and a media that love them. But for the club, it is not healthy sometimes to keep the player in that situation,” said the 46-year-old (via GOAL).
What are Edu Gaspar’s future plans?
The sporting director’s vision and strategy continue to shape up the club’s ambitions, with the main aim of dethroning the seemingly unbeatable side of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the English league. They also target to make a deep run in the Champions League.
Edu Gaspar has already provided Arteta big name signings such as Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus. As for the new season, he has had a busy summer, with already signing Riccardo Calafiori from Bologna for £42 million and goalkeeper David Raya from Brentford for £27 million.
Real Sociedad player Mikel Merino is the latest to be linked to the North London club, as Gaspar is closing in on the deal for around £30 million with personal terms already agreed. Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez’s name has also been brought up, although unlikely but the Brazilian has been closely monitoring on the situation.
With the transfer window still open and important players up for grabs, Arsenal fans can surely rejoice and expect a few more signings coming towards them.
