Edu on his plan for Arsenal

Some thoughts on Edu's interview with the Athletic

Arsenal technical director Edu sat down and did some media during Arsenal's trip to Orlando.

Edu on his Arsenal plan, Saka’s contract and ‘cleaning’ the squad - The Athletic

I was thinking of going point by point but then I thought that would be a bit too much (and also negate people reading the Athletic article, which I think you should) so I want to pick out one quote and go a little deeper on this.

But if you have already diagnosed it’s not our plan, change. As soon as possible. Or you’re going to postpone, postpone, postpone’. In football sometimes the decision has to be (made) quickly. It hurts, it’s challenging, but it has to be done.”

This is in reference to the decision to fire Unai Emery.

I think this is a refreshing nugget of information he shares here. I think back to that time and I was ready to fire him at the end of his first season because the writing was on the wall for a team that looked on the verge of collapse after a season that defied their underlying numbers.

This is what I wrote at the end of Emery’s first season

I was also already talking about wanting to not wait further after things showed issues in October of his last season, the club would end up giving him another month.

This is the case that I made that Emery should be fired in October of 2019.

Going back to the Edu quote, I think that this shows a good understanding that he understands that sometimes there are sunk costs in soccer and that no matter what you do you'll end up paying those costs but that as acting as the director he should do his best to not be bound by those previous decisions if the team can make a choice that changes course when the evidence suggests otherwise.

I think that Arsenal have done this with some of the decisions and the players that they have paid to leave. Yeah, that makes Arsenal look like a bad selling team but the freeing up of spots on the roster for players that would likely only be an issue is another good example of not letting decisions that the club has invested in heavily blind the team from making the proper decision for what is best going forward.

I think that there are some interesting questions about how when Arteta was struggling in both the 2020/21 season and in the 2021/22 season, Edu saw things as good enough on the path for implementing the plan that he didn't pull the trigger to fire Mikel Arteta during those times.

Overall I think this was a fascinating interview and it is well worth your time reading.