Recently, Arsenal Sporting Director Edu gave an interview with Men In Blazers, where he discussed the recent changes in the age structure of the Gunners’ squad and why he let go of several big-name players, even though it brought him a lot of criticism.
In the interview, Edu said: “As Sporting Director, you have to believe in yourself, believe that you can make the changes that the club needs. The first thing I was very focused on was the age of the players. When I arrived, almost everyone at the club was over 26-27 years old, they were all on high salaries, but they were not performing well, and there were no clubs interested in them.”
“So you have to make decisions, to let these players go, even if it takes 3-4 years or even longer. So these decisions began to be criticized, you start to become unpopular, because for the fans and the media, these players all have loyal fans. But at that time I had to clear out these people, we needed to sign players with lower salaries, younger ages, more potential and hunger as the foundation for rebuilding the team.”
Edu was appointed as Technical Director of Arsenal in 2019 and was later promoted to Sporting Director. In his first season at the club, Arsenal finished 5th in the league, but the following two seasons they finished 8th. After adjusting the first-team squad, Arteta’s Arsenal finished 5th in the 2021-22 season and have finished as runners-up in the league in the last two seasons.
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