Gary Neville says he’s surprised at the sudden departure of Edu as sporting director at Arsenal, saying nothing about it seems right.
The Brazilian is widely regarded as having done a great job alongside manager Mikel Arteta to turn Arsenal around in recent years, with his work in the transfer market clearly helping to make this team more competitive again.
Edu has brought some world class talent like Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes to Arsenal, with the north London giants able to compete very closely with Manchester City despite having a fraction of their rivals’ resources.
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Neville seems alarmed that such an influential figure has left a big club like Arsenal so suddenly, and he’s raised some valid concerns that might set alarm bells ringing with some Gunners fans.
How bad a situation is this for Arsenal?
Arsenal’s form on the pitch right now is far from what they’d ideally want it to be, with Arteta’s side beaten 1-0 by Inter Milan in the Champions League last night, having also lost 1-0 to Newcastle United in the Premier League last weekend.
These defeats follow the recent disappointment of also losing 2-0 to Bournemouth and conceding a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw at home to Liverpool.
AFC are capable of much better than this, and it’s perhaps not too surprising to see Neville react with some concern.
“We haven’t got the detail, we don’t know what’s happening completely. We know that, obviously, he’s going to go and work for the owner of Nottingham Forest and Olympiacos,” Neville told It’s Called Soccer.
“If I was Arsenal, you’d be asking serious questions how you’ve lost your sporting director of what is an amazing football club, a club that I’ve just said is the second club in England, in terms of history and tradition, to go and work for the guy who runs Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest.
“It doesn’t sound right to me. Now look, it might be a financial package which is just so sensational for Edu that basically he thinks: ‘Well actually, I can’t turn it down for my family’.
“But I can’t believe he’s not earning significant money at Arsenal.”