Arsenal are going into the season having spent more than they ever have in any previous year. A sum of £149 million has been spent on six players and they are all 23-years-old or younger.
This is a new transfer approach spearheaded by the Gunners’ technical director, Edu, who has been at the club since 2019.
Speaking to Sky Sports about this new transfer strategy, Edu said “I am really happy because the plan which we started to execute a year ago, we did. That's what makes me really happy because all the plans, all the steps, all the processes which we put together we executed.”
Despite Edu’s claim of execution, fans still have doubts about how the Brazilian is conducting business in north London since his arrival.
In the last two seasons during Edu’s tenure, Arsenal have fallen below expectations and finished eighth in the Premier League over back-to-back seasons.
The current boss Mikel Arteta promised a squad overhaul towards the end of last season and said: “Things are going to change and the owners are going to back it up.”
Despite Edu’s success in overseeing a squad overhaul with incoming, the same cannot be said about outgoings which worries the fans.
Joe Willock was the only player Edu managed to receive funds for in a sale this summer as we saw Willian terminate his contract and players who wanted to leave on a full transfer, such as Hector Bellerin, Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira, leave on loan.
So Edu’s execution in terms of outgoings is certainly not at the standard expected by the fans.
When the Brazilian was speaking to Arsenal.com he praised the contract renewals carried out by the club and said "Just to give you some context, we renewed - in one year - five sets of contracts, and five of them are under the age of twenty-three for the first team. Then, in this period, summer to summer, we signed ten players and seven out of the ten are under twenty-three as well.”
This is certainly where Edu deserves his praise as Bukayo Saka, Kieran Tierney and Emile Smith-Rowe who were arguably the club's best performers over the last season have been tied down to a new contract at a young age.
Despite the best performers having their contracts renewed, the fans are still confused with the situation concerning another player who is under the age of 23.
With just 12 months remaining on Eddie Nketiah’s contract, it seemed non-sensical not to accept an offer if one came in, but this is exactly what happened as according to The Athletic, Crystal Palace had an £8m bid rejected by Arsenal.
The failure to offload Nketiah epitomised Edu’s dealings to get money in return for players this window.
This is followed up by Alexandre Lacazette, another player with 12 months left on his contract and more worryingly, despite paying £50m for the striker in 2017, he looks to set to leave the club on a free transfer next summer as he does not plan on renewing with the club according to football.london’s Chris Wheatley.
Edu added "We have to balance the squad better. We have to recruit the players with the right characteristics and the right profile to make the squad better, more solid and much more consistent because last season we suffered with consistency.”
With a flurry of excellent acquisitions of young players this summer, to balance it out as Edu aims to do, he will also need to add experience to the side who do possess quality.
This is because players such as Bernd Leno, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Granit Xhaka who are classed as the team's senior players – have all been linked with moves away from the club.
Whilst Edu is certainly taking the steps in the right direction, there is still work to be completed.
