Edu has been promoted to become the Sporting Director of Arsenal football club after more than three years with the side, during which time he has overseen the overhaul of a sleeping giant into a potential title contender. Arriving in 2019, Edu initially worked alongside then Head of Football Raul Sanllehi but has since become a leading executive figure after the Spaniard’s departure in 2020.
Edu was a major part of the appointment of Mikel Arteta at the end of 2019 and has since developed a strong partnership with the now manager. Arsenal were regressing when he arrived and slipped further at the end of Unai Emery’s tenure, but the work of the Brazilian with Arteta arrested that slide and the Gunners now sit top of the table, five points clear at Christmas.
The aim from Edu has been consistent, to return the club to the top. football.london delves into what he has done to elevate Arsenal back in the direction of the elite.
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Arsenal philosophy
At Edu’s core, he is an Arsenal man from a time when the Gunners were the strongest force in the country. An Invincible and league winner, Edu has known what it is to be successful with the club under its most successful manager, Arsene Wenger.
When he was first appointed, Raul Sanhelli spoke of this connection with the club. However, it has been the skills and character traits since moving from on-field to off-field matters that earned him the move after his work with the Brazil national side.
“We’re very excited that Edu is joining the team,” said Sanllehi. “He has great experience and technical football knowledge and most importantly is a true Arsenal man. He understands the club and what we stand for to our millions of fans around the world.”
Edu played in a side that performed the most elegant and eye-catching football the country has arguably ever seen. It became an identity of the modern philosophy that Arsenal would be characterised with for the foreseeable future.
By looking at the football the current Arsenal side perform, it is evident immediately that Edu and manager Mikel Arteta have worked collaboratively to recreate and enhance these base ideals of the club. However, before Edu could instil class, he had to provide strength.
The first step - physicality
In 2020, Edu embarked on his first transfer window where he would experience being the leading executive figure at the club. Sanllehi left early in the summer, and it was the Brazilian that would oversee the closing stages of the window which saw midfielder Thomas Partey join.
A midfielder who immediately drew comparisons to Patrick Vieira, somewhat of a unicorn figure that had been missing from the Gunners’ middle third since the Frenchman’s departure in 2005. Fellow Brazilian Gabriel Magalhaes was also signed and has been a presence in the back four ever since.
Speaking after the window, Edu made specific reference to this physical quality. Although it wasn’t perfect, and he makes note of two players, Willian and Dani Ceballos, who failed to establish themselves, the successes of the business were a sign of things to come.
“I think we improved the squad's quality and physicality. Thomas, who we had in our plan for the future when me and Mikel sit and talked, I think you get all the players who we really focused on," he said.
“If you see Willian, he brings us experience and a very special physicality in terms of speed. If you see Gabriel, he gives us a lot of physicality and presence. Dani, quality. Thomas, physicality, quality and mentally he is very strong.
“But in the end if you see all these players we brought to the club, they are very good here (points to legs), but they are better here (points to head) which for me is very important because when you talk to the players, they have a lot of ambition. They are excited and they are hungry to win a title again.”
If you look at the subsequent summers of 2021 and 2022, the signings made begin to have a far higher success rate. But the intimidation factor has returned to the club.
Winning in the tunnel before the game was something Edu’s Invincibles squad possessed but gradually faded as the physicality was lost. Looking over at Partey, Gabriel, William Saliba, Ben White and Granit Xhaka, you now see a team that fears no one and is instead feared themselves.
Step two – project youth
Having just mentioned Ben White, the England defender was part of six additions in 2021 which overhauled the age profile of the Arsenal squad. All who arrived were either 23 or under, with White joined by Aaron Ramsdale, Martin Odegaard, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares.
The initial four listed play key roles in the side which sits top of the league, Lokonga remains a depth option, whilst Tavares has left on loan to Marseille where he is impressing and is sure to either reintegrate or make the club a profit (something which Edu still needs to address with his future ambitions to improve aspects of the club).
Arsenal had made mistakes of signing players either reaching their latter stages of their careers and ability or even already declining; some, especially at the start of Edu’s tenure, were still occurring after his appointment. David Luiz, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Petr Cech and others.
There were also several members of the squad on high wages, nearing or in their 30s who Edu has, with encouragement from Arteta, moved on or helped see their contracts terminated or expire. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi, Sead Kolasinac, Sokratis and Mkhitaryan amongst others.
Edu saw criticism from many for the terminations he made, seen as costing the club money. However, he explained to football.london this past summer why these were necessary and seen instead as investments.
"If you imagine, 'Oh, no problem: this season we’re going to expose the player a little bit more and then we sell them' — no, be realistic," he said.
"You don’t want to sell the player [but you have to] try to avoid one more year with the problem inside, in the dressing room, expensive, not performing. Clean, take it out. Even, I’m sorry, if you have to pay. To leave is better. Because that guy is sometimes also blocking someone.
"Take it out. I know it hurts, I know it’s strange when I go to the board and say, 'Sometimes it’s better to pay a player to leave than maintain them,' but I consider it an investment. Sometimes people say, 'It’s expensive' I say, 'no, it’s investment'. But someone will pay if you sell? No, guys — if the player is above 26, 27 and not performing, big salary, no chance."
Looking at the Arsenal starting XI there are some clear leaders of experience in the group such as Xhaka and Partey. League winners who are still approaching their prime such as Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus.
In addition to a host of young stars that Edu has helped renew and is aiming to extend their deals further: Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe. Combined with the aforementioned successful signings of 2021 who have since become critical to the squad, Arteta has seen a rise to the league’s summit.
Step three – win, win and win
"Here we have to always think about winning,” Edu told Sky Sports this summer. “I think the club was born to win things because of the size of this club and that we have to always think about winning. Every single year we have to be better, better and better."
It’s a simple target to put into words but delivering a winning mentality takes time, money, patience, consistency and quality. Edu has been able to bring or use these to elevate Arsenal and when asked recently about his target for the season, he was adamant that the top-four tag was not where his head was at.
He said: "With all my respect, even being realistic, I cannot think less than winning things.” That is the expectation of Arsenal football club, and it is evident that the Gunners have a Sporting Director whose philosophy is solely focused on that.
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