Farewell, Edu

The Brazilian was never properly rated while at Arsenal. Now he's leaving, what does it mean?

Edu’s departure from Arsenal came as something of an Election Week (sorry if my viewpoint is too American here) surprise, though the media certainly seemed ready for it.

According to various reports early Monday, Edu felt unchallenged in his role, while simultaneously wielding waning influence due to promotions and more hands-on work from Tim Lewis and Richard Garlick. Meanwhile, that Greek guy in the corner is offering three times his current (high) salary for the job he’s literally been wanting this entire time. That seems like quite a recipe.

You really don’t have to look far for evidence that I think Edu did a nice job for Arsenal, whether on this very website or within the demented confines of Twitter. So you’re not about to read a piece about how everyone is overreacting and Edu is actually Bad At His Job and Arsenal Will Be Fine.

But, at the risk of spending too much time swatting at the mosquitoes and not enjoying the weather, some within Arsenal’s fanbase have completely pulled their pants down this morning/afternoon. I think that’s deserving of a mention.

Posts like this? These are embarrassing. (I know WelBeast, while not a good Twitter user, did not make this himself.)

This? This is embarrassing.

Scott and I do our best to understand the good subscribers of Cannon Stats, so I don’t think you out there reading this will be shocked or dismayed to learn that I view what has transpired today as neither a boon nor a catastrophe. Rather, it’s just a thing that happened.

I will argue from here until the end of the week that Edu did a good job. He played a role in recruiting numerous players who changed the fortune of Arsenal for the foreseeable future. He led the Saka extension despite constant reassurances from both within and outside the club that he would be leaving as soon as he could. He extended Saliba, who’d been unjustly treated and would never play for Arteta. He signed Declan Rice despite never being able to close the deal on a big signing. Then he did it again with Kai Havertz. He signed Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori and others for favorable terms despite not being able to negotiate. And, he sold numerous players for good numbers despite not being able to sell. All of this by someone who was roundly panned for his performance over and over again by some fans.

And now, Edu leaves. By all accounts, Mikel Arteta will be involved in helping to backfill his position. That’s a good thing, because part of what made Edu/Arteta work is that they were directionally aligned. There were no power struggles between coach and front office, and despite the narrative that every good idea came from Arteta and every bad idea came from Edu, they worked well together to build something good and sustainable at London Colney.

In football front offices, most executives are replaceable, and that’s why my arguments around Edu have consistently been whether he was doing anything any other exec would do differently (I never thought he was). It feels very likely to me that Arteta, Lewis, Garlick and the Kroenkes find someone who is good at what they do and will add key capabilities to the recruitment team, and that’s a good thing. But more importantly, they will find someone who fits within the structure - that’s really the key here. But that person will also, very likely, be replaceable. And who knows, that person may soon decide that they want more control as well! This is a very normal and common occurrence in any workplace.

We can talk all day about whether the title race is over (I’m sure we will discuss over and over again for what’s left of the season), or whether signing one player over another was really The Right Move. We can talk about whether Arteta has won the correct number of Cups Per Pound Spent and whether Allegri or Nagelsmann would have won more. We can talk about individual results like Newcastle and Bournemouth and whether zigging instead of zagging would have stopped that from happening. This is all normal in football fandom, and though some days I just don’t have the time for it, I know well enough to expect it.

And honestly, that’s part of the beauty of sports: We’re going to all hold our opinions and talk about them, and we’re going to be held hostage by moments pretty frequently. I think it’s kind of great that I’ve got Nottingham Forest people in my mentions right now because I didn’t rate their window and they’re sitting third after 10 games. I even had one guy trying to brag to me about Edu being “poached,” which is very cute!

But let’s do our best to separate what happened Saturday (not good) and the potential falling short of a title (not great) from the broader goings-on at Arsenal. They’re just very tangentially connected, and that’s all there is to it. The timing is fine, and is unlikely to have much effect on the January window or next summer, or even what happens on the pitch this week. It most likely does not mean that Arteta is hard to work with and is scaring top-tier employees away with his unflinching ways.

To Edu, I say thank you, and job well done. As the saying goes, we move.