The last few years have undoubtedly been times of great upheaval at Arsenal. You can go back to the Champions League final in 2006 as the peak of Arsenal as a top club. We may have flirted once or twice since with title tilts, but we were burdened with a hugely expensive new stadium.
Was it the stadium, though or the departure in 2007 of David Dein, the club’s power broker, transfer fixer and Arsenal visionary? It left Arsene Wenger without his trusted Lieutenant, a man who could push through new signings or pull back from potential mistakes. He wasn’t perfect, of course, but then the nature of football means transfer perfection is nigh-on impossible. For every Sol Campbell or Nicolas Anelka, world class players bought for very little, there were mis-steps such as going low on Ashley Cole’s contract renewal which saw him ultimately leave the club for Chelsea; or sign Francis Jeffers for a big fee.
Wenger’s reign had undoubtedly gone stale by the time of his departure in 2018, with plans to spread the workload and responsibilities stuttering to say the least. Perhaps it was to be expected when the club had operated in one way for a decade with power unhealthily concentrated on the shoulders of one man.
In the next 18 months or so after Wenger’s departure, we lost Ivan Gazidis (despite justifiable questions about his own abilities), Sven Mislintat and Raúl Sanllehí, with Vinai Venkatesham taking the role of CEO. To say it has been a time of upheaval is an understatement, and one which many fans expected, but perhaps not quite as tumultuous as it turned out to be.
When he was appointed late in 2019, Mikel Arteta was tremendously impressive, talking about Arsenal as a big club, the “non-negotiables” and the winning mentality that we so desperately needed. To expect a rookie coach to get everything right in his first year is perhaps too much to ask – even though the FA Cup victory, joyous as it was, masked some of the inconsistencies and mistakes that became more apparent during our terrible run before Christmas. Arteta has remained steely-eyed throughout his first year and few would argue that his first year has been a challenge.
Punctuated by lockdowns and financial challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, no wonder Life President Ken Friar, who has been associated with the club for more than 70 years, described 2020 as the most difficult year in the Gunners' history. We now live in an era of impatience, where big clubs hire and fire coaches as soon as things start to go wrong – hire fast, fire faster. But sometimes the ‘project’ needs time to mature before pulling the trigger.
Which brings me to Edu and his importance to the club.
A decent midfielder for Arsenal, he was brought in as the club’s technical director and has now essentially become the Dein to Arteta’s Wenger. He was tainted when he first arrived by his association with Sanllehí and an unhealthy connection to certain agents. Having proclaimed that all transfer business had to go through him when Sanllehí departed, the Brazilian has been tarred with some of the contractual impasses that have seen the club lose millions in potential transfer fees.
A year after we signed David Luiz, whose error-strewn spell at Arsenal has often been disappointing, much was made of the signing of Willian, another Chelsea veteran expected to help us push for the top four as quickly as possible. Willian has been an unmitigated disaster and we are lumbered with a three-year contract for a player so far from his peak that his summer 2021 departure must be a priority.
Dein would most likely have stopped the Willian signing, urging focus on nurturing Reiss Nelson or looking at a younger option, should transfer finances have allowed. Edu has to take some responsibility for those errors. The Arsenal strategy has to be on buying long-term players with a high ceiling rather than washed-up veterans who appear set for comfortable retirement paydays.
But with the closure of the winter transfer window, it’s time to take a step back and accept that, on balance, Edu has already been a success. There are so many signings he has made in the first 18 months who have already proved their worth.
Perhaps Edu did not make enough about his reported involvement in the £6m deal to bring Gabriel Martinelli to Arsenal. In the Brazilian forward, we have a young, exciting forward who made an instant impact and who has the potential to be a genuinely world class striker. If he reaches the heights he looks capable of, Martinelli could have a transformative influence on the team and still have value to be sold for a big fee in years to come.
This time last year, we signed Cedric Soares and Pablo Mari to bolster a defence which was already packed with players. Mari has been blighted by injuries but has looked solid whenever he has played and I suspect he would have continued to play had it not been for his recent injury setback. While the evidence is limited, he already looks more accomplished than Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis, a trio who will all have left the club by the end of this summer.
Cedric Soares, an older full-back, has also had limited opportunities and has been labelled a mid-table journeyman. But he was brought in as an understudy for Hector Bellerin, who alongside Ainsley Maitland-Niles, was a possible departure last summer. With both of them staying as the market stagnated, was it really the worst decision to have signed an inexpensive replacement? While Cedric isn’t a long-term option, he has improved with game time this season and his display against Southampton last week proved his worth.
Of our other summer signings, are there any doubts about Gabriel Magalhães or Thomas Partey? Gabriel already looks solid and capable of improvement and despite spending much of the first half of this season on the treatment table, Partey already looks to be one of the best midfielders in the league.
Many fans have looked at Emiliano Buendía, Yves Bissouma or even Houssem Aouar to give us more strength in midfield, but the loan signing of Martin Odegaard makes absolute sense. The Norwegian playmaker already has years of top-flight experience in Holland and Spain and while his ability to manage tendonitis and the pace and power of the Premier League remains to be seen, his reputation remains as one of the most exciting young creative talents in world football. And he has signed at little cost or risk to the club but capable of sharing the creative burden with Emile Smith-Rowe.
Edu has also managed to ensure Mesut Ozil is off the Arsenal books. Whatever your thoughts on the German playmaker, his continued presence became an inconvenient sideshow and his departure allows everyone to move on.
Sokratis has also gone, as has Shkodran Mustafi, thankfully, and while it remains to be seen how successful the loans for Joe Willock and Maitland-Niles turn out to be, their departures make sense given their limited game time.
If young players are not going to make the grade or do not yet appear ready to play regularly for us, a loan will either build them up for next season or hopefully raise their value and profiles for future sales. Perhaps Nelson could have moved on loan and Lucas Torreira had his Atletico Madrid nightmare curtailed, but there’s no debate that Arsenal got a lot of work done to re-shape the squad.
If there is one black mark against Edu recently, it’s the failure to pin Folarin Balogun down to a new contract. The young striker already looks capable of making the step up and yet it looks likely that he will leave when his contract ends in the summer. But as I said at the beginning, football is not an exact science, and while it may look easy to buy and sell players, the reality is far more complex.
Arteta has already hinted that next summer’s transfer targets are already established, so it will be fascinating to see the profile of the players we bring into the club. Edu will no doubt have to prove himself all over again, but if we continue to shift the deadwood and bring in young players capable of becoming elite, the Brazilian’s stock as a transfer fixer will continue to rise.