Next season is the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Herbert Chapman at Arsenal and we are running a series of articles looking at how Arsenal managed to secure him and what he achieved at the club. You can follow the series here.
By Tony Attwood
When we worked on this morning’s piece which looked at how Nottingham Forest had managed to climb into the top four, none of us had any notion that Edu was about to leave Arsenal to go north – well at least as far as the East Midlands.
The man who is working on this mission is Evangelos Marinakis, of whom it has been said (see link); the owner of Nottingham Forest. Some people are called larger than life – Evangelos Marinakis is also sometimes thought of as larger than his suit. He is currently engaged in a legal dispute in which he is alleged to have been engaged in (and has strongly denied that he has been engaged) in a criminal organisation of which he is the head, while being “guilty of match-fixing practices including extortion, fraud and arson, as well as there being strong grounds to suspect him of deep and active involvement in international heroin trafficking.”
He’s also a man with interests in the rather interesting world of shipping, which is not to say there is anything wrong with shipping, but it is an area of work that occasionally gets mentioned in connection with unusual activities, as when Russians were being looked at in relation to their funds – some of which turned out to be on their boats. But I stress we have no notion of anything untoward.
I suppose Edu going is a bit of a shock because there have been no rumours around about this, and because we always see pics of Edu and Arteta talking, generally each with a hand over the mouth to stop anyone making up what was being talked about.
And it is a bit funny given that we were just yesterday considering how Forest have risen up, suggesting the numbers might be a bit misleading – but Edu would know far more about that than we do.
But Edu will have to work his notice, and he’s not the only managerial assistant in the world. There will be someone else who can get matters sorted.
Although I am not sure it has ever been confirmed, I always got the impression that Edu was the man who brought Martinelli to Arsenal, after Manchester United buggered around and couldn’t decide if to sign the young player or not. But then again, no one is indispensable
Edu rose up to be technical director just four years ago, although it seems he has been here much longer, and it was he, according to reports, who was a major factor in bringing in Arteta.
He’s also the one who managed to bring the likes of Martin Ødegaard, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Gabriel Jesus and Declan Rice to the club.
But there has always been a historic issue hanging over him arriving to transform the profile of Arsenal’s squad. He did, after all, try and join Arsenal with a forged passport (being Brazilian of course he had no automatic right of residence that he would have with a Portuguese passport). However Edu’s agent was mentioned at the time as being the man behind the scam – although of course again we don’t have any independent information on this.
Meanwhile some of the newspaper reporting of Edu’s departure is nonsense – he is now being blamed for the failure to sign a centre forward a nonsense story given the fact that last season Arsenal scored 91 goals – more than any season since 1953.
Now the Guardian is trying to turn on him for a lack of “genuine backups to Ødegaard or Bukayo Saka” – which is nonsense. If there were a player on the market who could be a backup to either player do you think he would come to Arsenal to sit on the bench? They really are reaching to the bottom of the barrel with such notions.
But the thing that the Marinakis’ group of clubs has, which Arsenal does not have, is the possibility of bringing in players and moving them around different clubs to get experience before moving them finally into the Premier League – and all done without the risk of a player being snatched away for a club willing to pay a lot to the player now.
As it is with the Marinakis group players can move back and forth between Nottingham Forest, Olympiakos and Rio Ave – and quite probably there are other clubs on the horizon.
For Edu’s sake we can only hope that he realises that Forest are at the position they are in the league because they have played so few of the top clubs. Last season after all they missed relegation by just one place and there’s no guarantee that as the fixtures begin to even themselves out, they could start to slide somewhat.
But good luck Edu – I hope works for you. You’ve been a great member of the team until now, although I am sure that Mikel knows exactly who he wants to bring in to replace you.
As well, we can expect the media to portray this as a sign of disintegration at Arsenal and a major loss of support for the club as a whole and Arteta in particular.
My thought, simply, is that Edu is entitled, like anyone else, to pursue new career opportunities and to wish him well, whilst thanking him for his positive contribution to Arsenal. first as a player and more recently, as a key member of staff.
The Edu to Forest story appeared on Goal.com over 3 months ago, but nobody paid much notice to it at the time. I doubt whether it’s quite as much of a shock to Arsenal as the media are stating.
Edu – August
Good luck to him in his new post . Am sure most of the Arsenal fan base have nothing but fond memories of his time with us . We will have to find and appoint another to help MA take this team forward.
Up the Gunners !
Why on Earth would EdU leave Arsenal for Nottingham Forest?
I bet that is a question many people are asking this morning. I am, because I just don’t get it.
It’s been suggested he just wanted a new challenge. Seriously? A new challenge?
What could be a bigger, more rewarding challenge than seeing the current project through and being part of returning Arsenal to the top of the Premier League, and more, hopefully being part of Arsenals first ever Champions league success?
Surely that is one of THE biggest projects in football? As magnificent a club as we are. As successful as we are being the 3rd most successful club in England. The lake of the biggest prize in European football is a massive hole in our CV. Everybody knows that.
And yet for some reason EDU thinks Nottingham Forest is a more attractive ‘project’? Nope, I’m not having it.
Maybe it’s just the money, I don’t know, but given how far we have come in the last few years. Where we are. The potential we have. In short, all that he and Arteta have built, and he jumps ship now, and without wishing to be rude, for Nottingham Forest.
And if siesmic is correct, and this was on the cards as far back as August when we were improving significantly on a squad that had just finished runners up, that makes it even more perplexing.
Ask yourself, if it was you, even if you didn’t support Arsenal, or have a history of playing for Arsenal. Even if it was ‘just a job’ to you, would you leave this current Arsenal
for Nottingham Forest?
Sorry, I’m not having it. Something doesn’t seem right to me.
And Grant on BBC Sport Website adds to the debate with: “Arteta should be leaving. He’s a coach, not a manager. He’s not a winner, he’s a sparring partner. Edu has brought some exciting talent and shall be a big loss.” Is this really an Arsenal supporter? He clearly has read your strapline ‘supporting the club etc’. I know everyone is entitled to their opinion and all that but…
Completely agree Richard. Statements of opinion dressed up as facts with no evidence.
Well the PGMOL hsve just issued a Big F*** you to Arsenal.For Sunday they’ve appointed none other than OLIVER & just in case he slips up they have TIERNEY on VAR just for insurance.Theyre going for the jugular.
Tony and Richard H
“Completely agree Richard. Statements of opinion dressed up as facts with no evidence”
I thought I’d look for some. Well, at least some context.
Lets start with this in gracious statement shall we: “He’s not a winner” Well apart from the FA Cup in his first season.
But okay, if he’s not going to count that then we can only assume in his mind Arteta only starts his time at Arsenal from season ’20/’21
So that means Arteta has been in charge of arsenal for 4 seasons. In that time he has finished 8th, 5th, 2nd, 2nd.
How does that compare with Manchester United all time legend legend Sir Alex Ferguson?
He took over in season ’85/’86
It took until his 4th season to win an FA Cup.
Okay, but not immediate and crucially it took him 7 seasons to win the league. 7 seasons, and not only that, it cost him a fortune.
Over those 7 seasons Man Utds net spend was £14M. Doesn’t sound much does it, but when you compare it to Liverpool’s £9M and Arsenals £7M it was actually a fortune. 50% more than Liverpool and double what Arsenals George Graham spent.
For his £14M Sir Alex won 1 FA Cup, 1 League Cup, 1 Cup Winners Cup, then eventually his 1st title in his 7th season.
Over that same period, for their £7M George Grahams Arsenal won 1 League Cup, 1 FA Cup and 2 titles.
I make those comparisons because the reality is, given the size of the club and the money he was spending, Sir Alex wasn’t doing that well. George Graham actually did better on half the money.
And lets not forget, Sir Alex had served a very good apprenticeship in Scotland before moving into a real league. Unlike Arteta who is effectively serving his apprenticeship now.
None of this is to knock Sir Alex at all, it’s simply to highlight just how difficult it is, even for one of the best managers of all time, to pick up an ailing team and get them back to the top.
Trophy or not, Artetas trajectory is very similar to that of the great sir Alex Ferguson. Not delivering a trophy after 4 years is no slight, especially if you have actually taken the team so close to the big one. Not once but twice.
And again, lets not forget, despite Artetas big spend, unlike Sir Alex, Arteta is not the biggest spender. Sire Alex was.
Arteta is, and has been doing a fantastic job at Arsenal, and trophy or not, for anyone to suggest otherwise is ignorant in the extreme.
It’s actually pathetic.
@Nitram
I don’t know, but if you are British, you surprised me to write like that about Forest.
Just before Abramovic bought Chelsea, they could have been a different club today if not for Russian rescue. BUT Nottingham Forest has a richer history, and then when I was not exposed to or English Soccer, except for Pool betting, was less followed in my Nigeria, that time our football was as exciting as any league anywhere in the world, Nottingham Forest were big in the news, and such player as Hooijndunk, not sure name is spelt correctly made news, that besides back to back European Cup final success earlier in the 1970s or 80s with the famous Brian Clough.
So Forest should be looked at with some respect, not for today but old time sake, they had some history men.