Arsenal sporting director Edu has made the bold claim that the Gunners "cannot accept" just qualifying for the Champions League as he adopts a similar mentality to Manchester United wantaway Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Gunners were involved in a fierce battle alongside north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur to finish in the top four last term. In the end, Arsenal ended up finishing fifth following a poor end to the season.
After a summer that has seen them fork out almost £120m and welcome five new faces to the club, Edu has claimed that the club’s target cannot simply be to qualify under Mikel Arteta but to claim silverware on top of that.
Speaking in an interview with football.london, he said: "I think we’ve added some more players with that kind of character [winners]. Talk to Gabriel [Jesus], talk to [Oleksandr] Zinchenko, talk to Fabio [Vieira]. [Points to head] Here is the win.
“Ah, Champions League, ok — I accepted that, because I want to be realistic. But here [in my head], I want to win. A club like Arsenal, at our size, is not building to be fighting for fourth place. I’m sorry.
"We have to realistic — there’s City, Liverpool etc — that’s fine, I accept that. But also, you can not accept that. Here, when you join this club, when you see our size, we cannot accept it.”
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Edu’s mentality shares a stark similarity to that of Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese forward previously claimed that he was not satisfied in fighting for a place in the European places but instead intends to challenge for major honours.
He said: “I don’t accept that our mentality be less than being in the top three in the Premier League.
“What I can say is we can do better – all of us. Manchester (United) belongs to important things, so we have to change that. I don’t want to be here to be in sixth place, or seventh place, or fifth place. I’m here to try to win, to compete.
“I think we compete but we are not yet in our best level. But we have a long way to improve and I believe if we change our mind, we can achieve big things.”
In his first campaign back at the club, United finished sixth - behind Arsenal - and that appears to have cost them the services of Ronaldo who has submitted a request to leave Old Trafford this summer.
So far, a move has proven difficult to facilitate with interested clubs such as Atletico Madrid, Chelsea and more not being able to stump up the huge wages that the 37-year-old would demand.
