Jamie Carragher has praised Arsenal technical director Edu for the club's 'brave' transition in transfer strategy over the last two years. In the previous pair of summer windows, the Gunners have spent in the region of £270million on refined and meticulously profiled targets.
The north Londoners have specifically identified players under the age of 24 years old who fit the mould of Mikel Arteta's philosophy. Last year, the north London side welcomed six new faces to London Colney, spending in the region of £150million; Martin Odegaard, Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Nuno Tavares and Aaron Trusty.
This year, Arsenal doubled down and spent around the same, signing Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Matt Turner and Marquinhos. The Gunners were one of the Premier League's biggest spending sides - even if they did miss out on a few deadline day deals.
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Cody Gakpo and Douglas Luiz were both heavily linked with late moves, but neither materialised, thereby seeing the club up for an exciting January window. Carragher is impressed with Arsenal's business after having once signed David Luiz, Willian and Cedric Soares in a window.
Speaking on Sky Sports show 'The Overlap Fan Debate Extra', the former Liverpool defender said: "The thing with Arsenal, I really like what's happened in the last two windows.
"You can see there's a plan in terms of 'we're going to go for young players. I think you made the mistake of going for Willian, Cederic, and David Luiz, overaged players. I think the players that you've brought in have been really brave, and they weren't people who would've taken them, and the position you've found yourselves in, you can't go and get Champions League.
"So you're almost having to build this young team. I can't look at many of the transfers over the last couple of years and thought this is a disaster. He looks a good player, Odegaard coming in, Ben White's at right-back, Saliba, Zinchenko, Jesus, Martinelli for a pittance really, you didn't pay too much money on him."
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