Mikel Arteta says he’s impressed by the job Edu is doing at Arsenal and praised the Brazilian for sticking to the long-term vision the pair agreed when he joined the club.
The technical director sat on the panel that hired Arteta in December 2019 and they’ve since developed a strong bond as part of a streamlined football operations team that has had to deal with the financial fallout caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
As another transfer window comes to a close – the third of their tenure together – it feels like the squad rebuild is gaining much-needed momentum.
While Edu has overseen questionable strategies and bad mistakes – most notably the agent-led recruitment of the recent past and our failure to send William Saliba on loan in the summer – the January exits for Sokratis and Mesut Ozil, as well as Sead Kolasinac’s move to Schalke, where he’s due to be joined by Shkodran Mustafi, have been important steps towards a leaner first-team wage bill.
The 42-year-old has also found time this month to recruit Martin Odegaard and Mat Ryan; two players needed in problem areas of the pitch.
All in all, it’s been a decent window for the Gunners and Arteta has been quick to praise the man pulling the strings.
Facing the press on Monday morning, he said: “I think he [Edu] is doing a great job at the club since I joined, the clarity that he showed when they came to try to convince me to join the club and then to stick to the plan we have and the way he is going about it, I am really impressed with him.
He also joked: “Probably in the last year, I have spoken to Edu more than anyone else in my life!
“That’s what my wife says because of the things we have to go through, with coronavirus as well, the transfers, luckily enough we have a great relationship, a great understanding and we support each other in a great way.
“It is lucky that if you have to talk to someone many times around the deadline day that the relationship is strong.”
Edu has a few irons in the fire that are likely to keep him busy up until 11pm. In addition to Mustafi’s proposed move to Schalke, it sounds as though Newcastle are trying to loan Joe Willock. Ainsley Maitland-Niles is also weighing up his options with West Brom seemingly back in the driving seat after Southampton pulled out of negotiations.
More good than bad definitely. I’m not sure if they are all down to him but Mari, Martinelli, Gabriel, Partey are all good buys, Odegaard a good loan pus even Cedric is turning out OK and Willian wasn’t as bad as usual v United.
“Man praises boss”. Is this really a story? Arteta has shown he’s canny and astute when dealing his higher ups. This is no different.
To all who were barking for him to be given his marching orders in December, I was quoting the same things and as it turns out, we have a really smart guy on our hands and I would say he looks most suitable for being a top manager than Ole and Lampard.
Arteta looks like he’s learning some lessons and the young players have most definitely turned the team around. The performances have been miles better since ESR came into the team.
That said there’s no chance that Lampard could have survived a run like Arteta had either so I’m not sure it’s really a knock on his ability that he got sacked. Virtually any top worldwide club would have sacked their manager after that run.
Can’t compare Mikels pedigree and the diverse cache of knowledge he can call upon in crisis to Lampard. Which is what I would keep the guy for if I was the most factual decision maker
Lampard had actual experience prior to this unlike Arteta
Lampard had 250 mill to spend on players. Mikel had to choose between Partey or Aouar and we needed both. Chelsea could sit the most expensive goalie on the bench while we had to sell our back-up goalie to make funds.
Still, if we had crowds in the stadium Arteta probably would have gotten the sack by now..
Lampard got sacked after dropping into
8th after finishing top 4 last year. Arteta’s run was so bad that we’ve had to go undefeated for 5 weeks just to get to 8th.
What pedigree….?
The guy has yet to complete a full season in the job. And he’s nearly had us in a relegation scrap.
Pedigree. 🤣
He’s quite a shambles to be honest. We were paying salaries for 3 players who weren’t even in our squad list up until now – ozil, sokratis, saliba. He recruited an RB in cedric when we needed a cover for LB instead. Even weirder that we took in a relatively pricey option in Cedric who has no resale value when we should have gotten a younger backup who will grow in stature and market value. In the summer, we already had a star RW in Pepe and a young promising backup in Reiss Nelson. Why on earth did he recruit… Read more »
Covid did mess things up a little last year.
Wages mean you don’t have up front costs
When we recruited Cedric we had Sead as a second choice LB. Bellerin was our only real RB.
I agree on Willian, we should have spended that money on a younger player that would demand much less salary.
I think we are overpaying our players and when we bring in players like Willian on a big salary and when they don’t perform others in the dressingroom who do perform aren’t gonna be happy.
You are in a press conference and asked a question about your technical director. Click which response you’d like to give.
A) You’re not happy with his performance and things need to improve
B) You’re content that he’s doing sound work but there’s always room for improvement.
C) You think he’s doing a great job and you two have become close friends.
Yes, the journalists like your answer and a favourable article is written about you in your clubs fanzine, Arseblog.
*Level Up*
Your reputation status has moved from ‘Unknown Quantity’ to ‘Fan Favourite’.
Yes, it’s hardly the trickiest question to answer, given the circumstances. Of course, had we not improved in the PL it would have been Edu – along with the Owner etc. – who would have been responsible for giving Arteta the boot.
I wasn’t really making any point. Just used to love those 90’s management games.
Plus my boss doesn’t really check up on us all that much. As long as I can blag some productivity on the weekly zoom, I’m golden.
This all said assertively of course?
Definitely more B) than C).
The club is finally moving in the right direction. The obvious failings in defence, midfield solidity and creativity have been addressed. We are happy to put the boot in when things are being done badly.
A bit of praise is due.
Not to disagree but does it matter how you achieve those goals. Stumble upon them or proper methodology? I like someone’s reasoning this pas week that he hopes Arteta checks his ego at the door abit and makes better overall decisions while keeping in mind this was baptism by fire.
Nevertheless, I wish him growth as we shall be a direct beneficiary the faster he learns.
Arteta’s had to put in a massive shift to cover up for Edu’s colossal fuck up in handling our transfers and loans.
Yes, they certainly deserve that although let’s not forget how poor we were earlier on and, I suspect, how close Arteta came to losing his job if there hadn’t been signs of improvement come last Christmas or thereabouts. However, all that seems to be behind us now and, in the PL at least, we’re making solid progress in those areas you mention. Translating all of those positives into getting up the PL table in any meaningful sense will be the trick for them in the second half of this season.
I have a mental vision of the 2 of them just sat on a zoom call all day, working on stuff in their offices at home and having work bants. Man I miss being able to just chat shit with colleagues in the office.
“Great Job” bit of a stretch… Saliba debacle, Willian – which most thought a risky/bad move when Edu did it. Winding up with too many players at the start of this season. Paying transfer/ loan fees back end of last season for Mari/ Cedric while both injured (the latter getting in the way of AMN in a position as back up we didn’t even need).
Not all bad though. Gabriel and Partey pretty tidy along with Oodegaard loan.. But “great”? Not for me.
I think that was covered by, and I paraphrase, “although he oversaw some shit in the recent past, he’s done well with a number of exits to free up the wage bill and some key additions in a window where there is still much to do”…
This is such a weird time that I’m not convinced any team is working on long term development. The key is just survival. Partey was great and does indeed bode well for the club’s development over the next 3 years. Everything else is short term and on that front Edu has done OK
But not “great”
I just hope this is not taking a lot of Arteta’s time away from the first team and planning for the next game. I would prefer Arteta identifies the first team people he wants to stay and positions he needs and everything else is taken care by Edu and team.
On a side note: any surprise last minute recruitment today? I miss those arsene wenger days with up to 5 deadline day surprises!
Yes; Watford have signed Bergkamp.
With the whole Brexit fiasco, his contacts and knowledge of the South American market could be key for us
We’ve gone from outright embarrassing moments (Willian, Ozil, Saliba) to slightly head scratching (cancelling contracts in lieu of getting any sort of fee). So if that’s not progress, I’m a monkey’s uncle.
sokratis, nelson, guendouzi…
And oh, RUNARSSON. Another fuck up there.
Pass me a bucket. 🤮
I also long for the days of Wenger dithering all Summer whilst Gazidis proclaims we can sign anyone in world football except Messi
Arteta and Edu are totally green, and have made themselves look like fools at times. But they’re at least trying to build a real squad, rather than letting time take it’s natural course until they leave behind a tumbledown mess. The scale of the task Edu and Arteta inherited, at a time of boardroom upheaval too, was huge. Give them a bit of time
As you say, for all the positives, and there were many, Wenger was a terrible ditherer in the transfer market at times – and he made matters worse by banging on about all the players he nearly signed but didn’t for a (seemingly endless) number of reasons. Goodness knows what more we would have won had he signed a fraction of them, but he didn’t. You’re right about the “money available” line trotted out by the club then and, to be fair, Wenger spent quite a lot from time to time (unfortunately not always very wisely towards the end as… Read more »
Overmars, Petit, Ljungberg, Anelka, Campbell, Pires, Henry, Lehman, Lauren, Fabregas, Ramsey, Ozil, Cazorla, Alexis.
Three Premiership titles, two league and FA Cup doubles, A league season unbeaten, a 49 unbeaten league match record, 20 consecutive seasons in the top four, seven FA Cups and this football club’s first ever appearance in the European Cup/Champions League Final.
I mean, what an absolute ditherer that guy was.
I don’t ever seem to remember Wenger and Gazidis taking this club to the dizzy heights of 15th and a potential relegation scrap.
More focused this Jan may be a result of help from Garlick brought in to assist in clearing the deck. BC a lot of the issues temporarily resolved now were Edu’s making in the first place. Signing Runnarson. Willian (arguably Sanlehi had a huge part in this too in his defense). Unable to clear the decks earlier with Ozil, Sokratis etc Then Arteta himself has contributed to the issue unable to bring around players like Torreira or Sokratis or play Saliba instead of Mustafi (regardless if that player is ‘not quite ready’) or manage the combustible Guendouzi. And it has… Read more »
Fantastic window. Kudos to Edu and Arteta. They did an excellent job getting Odegaard in, and even better job getting the dead wood out and finding loans for key youngsters.
My only concern is not finding a Prem loan deal for Nelson. Feel like game time is what he needs to propel himself to the next level and push for a regular first team spot at Arsenal.
Aside from Nelson situation, a really strong window for the club and for Edu/Arteta.
I hope they form a partnership like Wenger and Dein which was brilliant for Arsenal.
“He filed the paperwork and everything.”