Edu has been reminded of his biggest transfer mistake at Arsenal to date following the crowning of Konstantinos Mavropanos in October's team of the month from Europe's top five leagues.
Football data and statistics site WhoScored ranked the Gunners' loanee as the best centre-half from the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 in October.
Mavropanos, who joined Arsenal in 2018 for £1.9 million, welcomed the Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels (7.70) and Chelsea duo Reece James (8.11) and Ben Chilwell (7.74) into the award winning defence.
But, while the Greece international (7.98) has etched his name above one of his London rivals' best players in Chilwell, Mavropanos' latest feat reminds Edu and Mikel Arteta of what could've been a big step towards closing the gap at the top.
The 23-year-old's fruitful displays at Stuttgart have teased Gooners into thinking that Arteta will be welcoming the centre-half back to London Colney at the end of the season alongside William Saliba.
Mavropanos could have been rubbing shoulders with Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães and William Saliba at the Emirates next season, handing the Gunners boss a mouth-watering £98.6 million centre-half quartet to work with.
However, Stuttgart's sporting director and former head of recruitment at Arsenal Sven Mislintat confirmed negotiated a shrewd $4 million (£2.95m) exit clause with his former club.
The transfer deal has left Edu with pie on his face in what has transpired into the north London side's worst transfer mistake since Serge Gnabry set sail for the Bundesliga.
Mavropanos is now is the highest-scoring defender in the German top-flight with three goals in nine games.
He has also been record as the Bundesliga's 13th fastest player in the league and the second quickest centre-half, clocking a top speed of 35.08 km/h (21.8 mph) - faster than any of Bayern Munich’s or Borussia Dortmund’s central defenders.
Mavropanos has enjoyed a prominent breakthrough at Stuttgart, similar to Antonio Rudiger once did, highlighting how another mistake could've been missed had Edu delved deep into the European transfer market archives ahead of the youngster's departure.
The Arsenal loanee's chances of returning to the Emirates at the end of the season seem slim but the Gunners can take confidence from the early success reaped in Per Mertesacker's drive towards emulating Chelsea's loan network.
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