Arsenal’s Technical Director is Getting Grilled

At the close of last season, it was clear that Arsenal required several additions to the squad in order to be competitive for the 2021-22 campaign. Following the conclusion of Mat Ryan’s loan spell and his subsequent return to Brighton, a backup goalkeeper not named Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson was needed. The final few months of Mikel Arteta’s first full season in charge had shown that adding a backup left-back was of the utmost importance. In the wake of David Luiz leaving the club, Arteta was keen on a center-back who could distribute the ball the way the outgoing Brazilian did. A backup central midfielder was also on the club’s shopping list after Mohamed Elneny, Lucas Torreira, and Ainsley Maitland-Niles all proved to be rather unconvincing options. Granit Xhaka’s seemingly imminent move to Roma meant that a starting-caliber midfielder needed to be brought in. Despite tying Emile Smith Rowe to a long-term deal and giving him the No. 10 shirt, another attacking midfielder to bolster Arsenal’s chance creation was required as well. And with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang showing signs of decline and Alexandre Lacazette continuing to not be a prolific goalscorer, it is safe to say that a new striker would have been welcome too.

As the Gunners geared up for their season opener, only a few of these demands had been met. Nuno Tavares had been brought in from Benfica to provide cover to Kieran Tierney. Ben White, a young English center-back with a great passing ability, was signed from Brighton as Arsenal’s biggest acquisition of the summer. Albert Sambi Lokonga arrived from Anderlecht, and after an impressive preseason and Premier League debut, is the clear third choice in midfield behind Xhaka, whom Arsenal have extended instead of signing a new central midfielder, and Thomas Partey. But even at the time of this writing, those are the only signings Arsenal have made. The absences of Gabriel, Partey, Aubameyang, and Lacazette saw Arteta start a young, promising, and exciting side in their first match of the season, but also an inexperienced and relatively weak one. As a result, Arsenal lost 0-2 to Brentford to start the campaign.

This failure to adequately address Arsenal’s areas of need before the beginning of the season falls at the feet of Edu Gaspar, Arsenal’s current technical director. The former Invincible has consistently proven unconvincing since being placed in charge of Arsenal’s transfer strategy following Raul Sanllehi’s exit from the club. Sadly, this is not the first time that Edu has failed to get all the necessary signings done before the first kick of the ball in a campaign. To start the 2020-21 season, Arsenal found themselves relying on a midfield of Xhaka and Dani Ceballos. This duo was slow, easy to press, and not dynamic. Despite a solid string of results to begin the season, their victories following a 3-0 win away to Fulham belied how close for comfort the margins really had been in those contests. By the time Arsenal triggered Partey’s release clause on deadline day of the transfer window, they were lucky to only have lost to Liverpool by then.

This time, however, the fixture list does not appear to be so benevolent toward Edu’s willingness to dally. Arsenal’s loss to Brentford and fixtures against Chelsea and City looming in the next couple weeks practically guarantee that Arsenal begin this new season with three losses unless the squad is buttressed quickly. The technical director’s aversion to taking an aggressive approach in the transfer market could very well cost the Gunners nine points in what is potentially a defining season. Nine points down the drain is a massive loss when the club likely need just over 60 points to finish in the European places and remain relevant. And yet, Edu is willing to make such a costly sacrifice in the hopes of getting slightly better deals for the several reinforcements Arsenal desperately need right now.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only way in which Edu has massively disappointed. In addition to taking a while to make signings, he has also shown that it’s not a guarantee those signings are always smart ones. The Brazilian has had a hand in some of Arsenal’s most head-scratching acquisitions in recent memory. In his first transfer window fully in charge of Arsenal’s market activity, he signed Cedric Soares on loan from Southampton. The Portuguese right-back did not feature once during his loan, but was offered a long-term deal anyway following the expiration of his contract with the Saints. Arteta now prefers multiple right-backs to Cedric, who looks a strong bet to warm the bench for the rest of his time in north London. Then, of course, was the arrival of Willian, a transaction that Edu played a crucial role in. 32 years old at the time, the former Chelsea man was given a three-year agreement and a six-figure weekly salary. Willian is even less welcome in the Arsenal setup, with the manager telling ESPN Brasil recently that the winger had not met expectations and subsequently not including him in the first matchday squad of the season. On the recommendation of Iñaki Caña, Arsenal’s goalkeeping coach, Edu brought in Rúnarsson. A year later, the Icelandic keeper is essentially persona non grata and might even be behind Karl Hein and Arthur Okonkwo in the pecking order.

On top of bringing deadwood to the club, Edu has also demonstrated an annoying reluctance to accept good offers made for players who are surplus to requirements. Last summer, PSG offered £25 million plus another £5 million in add-ons for Héctor Bellerín. Instead of accepting such a lucrative proposal for an academy product who was coming off of an ACL tear and already wished to leave, Arsenal rejected the approach. Arteta was allowed to convince Bellerín to stay. The Spanish right-back lost his starting berth to Cedric and then Calum Chambers last season, and was not selected for the trip to Brentford on Friday. One player who made the bench over Bellerín last weekend was Ainsley Maitland-Niles, whom Wolves were willing to procure £20 million for in the summer of 2020. But once again, Arsenal refused to make a profit on a Hale End product because Arteta wished to keep him. Maitland-Niles played so little in the first half of last season that he was loaned to West Brom to enjoy some playing time. His fortunes do not imminently look like changing this season. With West Ham interested in Eddie Nketiah last January, Arsenal snubbed all potential approaches and held on to the England U21 record goalscorer. Nketiah went on to achieve only 94 minutes in the Premier League after the end of the window.

An especially concerning aspect of these blunders is that they seemed to occur at the behest of Arteta. The inadvisable signings of post-prime players were reportedly carried out because Arteta wanted those players. The retention of players from whom Arsenal stood to gain a much-needed profit took place once again because the manager liked those players and wished to include them in the squad. While the exact structure of the club’s leadership is murky at best, it is difficult to imagine Arteta’s promotion made him anything more than level with Edu in the Arsenal hierarchy. If that is true, it would mean that Edu’s transfer strategy is beholden to Arteta’s whims, which makes for an unacceptable way to operate as a club’s technical director. Instead of serving as a check to Arteta’s worst instincts, Edu has enabled them. Rather than exercise his authority and perform his duties, he has opted to do the easy thing and rubber-stamp the manager’s demands without pushback.

So to recap, Edu Gaspar has failed to get crucial business done for the club before the curtain rose for the new season, costing Arsenal precious points as they aim to bounce back into the European places. He has been involved in some truly disastrous signings for the club, and has also refrained from selling players who would shortly thereafter become obsolete in the manager’s eyes when their value had likely peaked. And he has allowed the club’s transfer strategy to be dictated by the coaching staff rather than adopt more precise methods, to the point where is unnecessarily subservient to the manager.

As a cherry on top, Edu has spent the summer publicly flaunting his being on holiday. Now, in all likelihood, he was likely in the loop and working on deals while abroad, and he has every right to enjoy a vacation regardless. But perception is a massive part of a job as public-facing as technical director of Arsenal Football Club. To that end, posting photos from a Monaco yacht club or a beach resort in Mallorca requires either a disqualifying level of obliviousness or a concerning amount of indifference. Edu showing up in Instagram posts with an infamously opportunistic super-agent and a former executive who exited the club under a cloud of controversy makes for an especially bad look. Again, his job is a stressful one and he is entitled to rest and relaxation like the rest of us. But he should know better. His counterparts at other clubs are not engaging in this behavior. The fact that he has is yet another black mark against him.

When he was first appointed as technical director, Edu’s arrival did not inspire much confidence within the Arsenal faithful. Since then, the Brazilian has done very little to win supporters over. He has made a plethora of errors, failing to justify his retention whilst the likes of Ralf Rangnick and Luis Campos were unemployed. Unless, and perhaps even if, Edu pulls off an absolute masterclass to end the current transfer window, Arsenal would be best served extricating themselves from their current technical director. For the club to return to the big time, they need to put people in charge who are serious, ruthless, and reliable. And Edu Gaspar hasn’t demonstrated that he is any of those things.

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