Edu Gaspar’s departure certainly took Arsenal by surprise. His resignation did not reach the club’s board of directors until Monday morning, according to sources familiar with the situation. The natural response will surely be to take your time. Unfortunately for Arsenal, time is the only resource that runs out quickly at Premier League clubs.
At first glance, it might be fair to suggest that the Gunners are ready to weather the storm. Whoever replaces the Brazilian will not have to undertake a radical restructuring of the first team. The outgoing sports director… He is expected to join Evangelos Marinakis’ group of clubs in a higher position and for a more generous wage package. — has largely addressed what he so memorably identified as the biggest problem for those in his position.
“When a player is 26 years old or older, has a big salary and is not performing, it is killing you,” he memorably said in 2022. “In the past, 80 percent of the squad had those characteristics and there was no possibility of no one had them.” buy them.” Arsenal are not without those players – they have not found clubs knocking on their doors for Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus, for example – but they can make up for that with some of the game’s most valuable gems.
In fact, last year sports data experts at Twenty First Group rated Arsenal as the second most expensive team in sport. No wonder they have the likes of William Saliba and Bukayo Saka in their books. Having such talents has propelled Mikel Arteta’s side into Premier League contention, but their presence is a headache for anyone in Edu’s position. Woe to the man who lets such gems slip through his fingers!
From the moment these two signed new deals in the summer of 2023, the clock was ticking for their next extension. The same thing happens when you have players who could join almost any team in the world. The four-year deals for each were perhaps less than Arsenal would like, but when you get a commitment from players of the caliber of Saka and Saliba you don’t gamble about whether you can get another 12 months. Still, doesn’t it suddenly seem like 2027 is closer than Arsenal would like?
The looming presence of Real Madrid means it seems a question of when, not if, William Saliba’s future will become an annual Patrick Vieira-style referendum on the status of Arsenal. The case of Bukayo Saka could be different… He talks about Arsenal as “my club” and lights up when reminded that he is one of their captains. — but that’s not a hypothesis worth testing.
The fear for Arsenal comes when considering what happened when Liverpool lost their transformative sporting director in 2022. Michael Edwards’ departure heralded two years of drifting off the pitch before returning in the summer with Richard Hughes as their sporting director. By then the damage had already been done. In that time there were no news for the three emblematic players of Jurgen Klopp’s great team: Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. It’s time for eyeballs to wonder, for Saudi Arabia and Real Madrid to prepare even more lucrative offers given that they may not have to pay Liverpool anything. A little organizational turbulence is enough, even in times of sporting success.
This summer there will be two years left for Saliba and Saka. It may be your last moment of maximum value. Certainly, if the lure of the Santiago Bernabéu is too strong for one of them, Arsenal need to know. They cannot afford to simply stay with the new sporting director or settle into a new structure that will dictate contract negotiations. Given that there will be no opportunity for a Manchester City-style transition (Hugo Viana will leave Sporting at the end of the season when Txiki Begiristain leaves), Arsenal will fight for a vacancy at the top of the club for several months. . Even a coach as active at the club as Arteta cannot negotiate contracts on the training ground.
Arsenal have long been aware of interest in Edu, with links to Nottingham Forest first emerging in the summer, but being prepared to act quickly is another matter. This could be good news for assistant sporting director Jason Ayto, who enjoys a very good reputation internally. When Arsenal set out to hire their first manager in 2019, a role initially reserved for Monchi, it was considered of great importance that any candidate have a working knowledge of Arsenal or the head coach’s methods. Five years later, similar criteria would not allow the creation of a deep fund.
Choosing the right candidate and doing so quickly is of utmost importance for Arsenal. As his title rivals can attest, getting the structure wrong can quickly lead to all sorts of contractual problems.
