222 Comments

I agree with those who say edu leaving is no excuse for results to wane further this season

But it’s a bit concerning as to why it’s happened.

For edu it’s frankly a huge step backwards. Why would he do that unless he felt it’s better off to be at forest than at Arsenal when we’re supposed to be on the cusp of literally greatness and big titles?

Either forest have (somehow) been able to make an offer he couldn’t refuse like a ridiculous financial package (which is a little surprising to be honest) OR he wasn’t happy with something at Arsenal. If so, what?

Rumours of him being unhappy with artetas increasing power at the club. They are certainly just rumours for now but I hope that’s not the reason because Arteta shouldn’t be so powerful as to be putting a DOF’s back against the corner. That’s simply a bad arrangement

Anyway let’s see what we learn in the coming days. Hopefully it wasn’t anything to do with Arteta, and hopefully we get a quality replacement lined up.

But this certainly was a big surprise for me and I hope it’s just that forest somehow made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Literally imagine thinking trading Arsenal on the cusp of greatness for Nottingham forest is a good career move… what has happened here….?

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Marko - not close we are in a battle for top 4 mate

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At no point....NO POINT WHATSOEVER should the departure of Edu be used as a crutch for any dip in our performance and results. No point at all.

Pedro, I hope you read this

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New Post

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And yet we were top scorers on the Prem last season No?

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Also weird how directly after the Newcastle game I wasn't able to comment. Suppression of Arteta criticism directly after a defeat I suspect. Look someone needs to rein in his impulses to be a boring fucking manager cause we're very close to going from it being our year to fighting for top 4

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Edu leaving is a huge blow and the timing of it could be telling. But in saying all that if you do your due diligence you can pick up a very tasty DOF. There's a few of them these days.

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Sami Mokbel

Edu’s departure at Arsenal will hit hard. Players love him. Staff love him. Even rival sporting directors love him. But a dilution of power and the allure of a multi-club position - maybe with Nottingham Forest - has led to his exit.

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22 hrs ago·edited 22 hrs ago

Fk me, Edu leaving is a huge blow. I have belief that we'll replace him properly but I can't help but feel bad about it.

Edu will always be a part of our history and I was enjoying his work, I am proud of how he handled things, a true gentleman and a blast from the past of how things can be done in a respectful way.

I do believe we progressed a lot under him and Edu should always be mentioned when we speak about us being back. Him and Arteta were a great duo and the driving force, along with Josh Kroenke, that brought us back among the bests.

It should be a sad day for us but a promotion is a promotion (chief executive for Marinakis' three clubs) so if he feels that it's the best job for him, then I hope it is.

No wonder the first news around it is Arsenal sources describing this as a 'big loss' but vow to 'carry on working.'

We move on regardless but a blow probably in the dressing room and within the ranks of Arsenal employees. Hopefully we sign the right guy.

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That doesn't really seem like a promotion for Edu, I wonder why he is off. Bored at Arsenal presumably with just one club to buy for and our big ticket spending mostly finished now that Kroenkes have replaced starting xi in past few seasons.

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Guardian - "The Arsenal sporting director, Edu, is to leave the club and looks likely to join the network of clubs spearheaded by Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Nottingham Forest.

Now Edu is being lined up to take a senior role in Marinakis’ group, potentially in a position involving recruitment oversight. Forest, Olympiakos and the Portuguese side Rio Ave are the three clubs currently under the 57-year-old’s control."

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22 hrs ago·edited 22 hrs ago

From a sporting director to chief executive. Sounds like a hefty promotion to me.

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I haven't seen a specific job mentioned in few articles I read, I assume he getting pay raise but he won't be buying Rice type players for big £££ anymore, now he just buying regularly priced players.

I wonder if it's another project to take on like Arsenal were when Edu first arrived.

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Hmmm.The best article I’ve read so far on this EDU departure if from“ she Wore a yellow ribbon” blog.The rest ,from the main stream media is all ‘ Doom n gloom” as you’d expect as they see it as an opportunity to give Arsenal another kicking while we’re down at present.

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One Wenger vibe that I have been sensing from Arteta for a while now is how he seems to be collecting players that are crocks. The Calafiori buy is a really strange one considering the huge amount of time he has been sidelined with injuries in the past.

I mean we are trimming the team down and yet buying a player who has a high chance of ending up injured during the season. If we are trimming the team down we should be making sure that the player we buy won't be breaking down mid-season.

This really feels like Arteta has torn a page straight out of the Wenger playbook of buying crocks as an excuse for not going any higher than 4th.

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This all smells of another power struggle. New contract for teta and edu leaves. Seems iffy

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Nov 4·edited Nov 4

Like I said before the season was nixed in the summer. There were obvious

things that needed to be addressed but there seemed to be a lack of cohesion.

I’m hoping young Kroenke can step up and be the calm hand to steady the ship

or everything that’s been done these past five years is ready to blow up and all the fans

will turn on Arteta. Love his passion but he’s not the most likable person and his supporters

don’t make things easier for him by always making ad hominem attacks on people who

question some of his decisions. Now I’m not talking of the attention seeking jesters who

are always on a wind up but those who make legitimate challenges to some of his methods.

Our season and the future of our club is on the brink. Really need a calming and experienced

hand to navigate this and redirect the energy in the right direction.

#BRINGBACKDAVIDDEIN!

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C’mon man

David Dein is an 81 year old man who’s been out of football for over two decades.

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I thought it was sarcasm but it seems he is seriouos

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Did you not understand the wording of steadying the ship?

This isn’t a time for an agenda setting new technical director.

The club needs a hand holder until the summer when you can

reorganize ….

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How many 81 year old retired millionaires want to come back to the fray; start watching endless videos, hold dozens of meetings weekly, and be barraged with phone calls 24-7 from agents?

That wouldn’t be ‘steadying’ the ship my man, that would be mooring the ship at a dry dock, emptying out the ballast tanks and draining out all the fuel before the lights go out.

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Nov 4·edited Nov 4

🤦🤦

You love being tedious my man. Have you ever listened to an interview of David Dein and what he’s currently doing? No you clearly haven’t. Also you seem to think being a steadying hand at the ship has to do with being an energized bunny and being at every activity from changing dressing room towels to youth triangle drills?

No! It’s simply assuring everyone at the club that we are not in panic or crisis mode and that we are backing the manager and the club isn’t falling apart at the seams and we are ready to keep progressing while looking for a new man to work progressively with Mikel … It’s called transitional leadership…

Anyway you like being tedious for the mere sake of arguing … there are extensions that need to be signed and new recruitment that needs to be done. You can’t accomplish these things with a club that’s perceived to be in turmoil. The appointment of an old hand to temporarily steady the ship while we look towards the future stabilizes things.

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I thought we were just talking

It’s just I have heard and read people ask for David Dein for the better part of 15 years.

Let’s not forget he left Arsenal as a pariah because he was all over the place; backed the Kroenkes and then backed Usmanov. Essentially, he outmaneuvered himself .

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Nov 4·edited Nov 4

But that’s not what we are debating.

Is he capable of being a steadying hand at this moment of crisis and transition? I say, Yes.

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This season, I’m getting too many Wenger vibes with Arteta

He’s a manager who’s gotten too comfortable and too many people are running defense for him. I don’t care how good any managers is, that managers influence needs to be checked and moderated.

I’m also fear that our window of winning the league may be rapidly closing…or maybe it has already closed.

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It’s not closed.. The reality is that if we can beat Chelsea away…

And I know on current form that’s a big “IF”, we’ll only be - 2 on last seasons tally from the corresponding fixtures.

City have lost their last 2, and injuries are seriously piling up there, I wouldn’t be that surprised if Sporting got a result of some kind tomorrow night.

Liverpool are currently on for 95 points, not impossible that they hit that, but they’d need a hell of a lot to drop their way to deliver that type of consistency across 38 games.

We need to turn this around quickly, no doubt about that…

But whenever we hit a bump in the road, people always lose the plot..

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I‘ve always said our first 11 games - take forrest as the 12th with it as they seem to be prett good - are hard. they would have been hard without injuries and poor refs.

we need to get a run together in december winning 7/8 games on the bounce - that may seem impossible now but those are games against the bottom 10

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Rich

The difference is that even though I want to win the league real bad, there are other ways a season can be successful besides winning the league

I can say the league winning chances are fast fading and still say it without anger or grave disappointment.

I think we did a disservice to our aspirations in the summer window by clearing out five attacking players without replacing them. It was a bit arrogant to enter a season the way we did.

I hope you’re right, same way your optimism almost prevailed last season.

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Diss…

I just don’t think we’ve suddenly become a bad team overnight.

I’ve had concerns around the amount of injury prone players, particularly in our backline..

We just need to make sure that a couple of bumps in the road, don’t turn into a crisis.

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We were Not great offensively last season. 6th in progressive distance.

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Scored 91 league goals, 2nd most in the league; and the most league goals in our history.

Only 5 behind City, but equal on goal difference, with + 62.

You’re just a trolling cunt, who’s consistently pushing Armageddon…

You can’t wait for things to fall apart, because you’re clearly not an Arsenal fan, but rather a fan of kicking the club you claim to support, but really hate.

Cunt.

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You are struggling so resort to insults and ad hominems.

Repeating about 91 goals. Our struggle at open play football is clear.

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The Edu exit just shows up all the propagandists that were rating. the summer transfer window in glowing terms. That summer window was bizzare and shoddy.

The targets we sought were strange; we needed a striker, back ups for Odegaard and Saka and a #8. What did we end up with?.

I think Arteta got too powerful and is doing the Wenger thing where a director of football is just there as an underling.

A director of football/sporting director couldn’t have built this lopsided squad. There’s no one who can’t see that Jesus and Zinchenko needed to leave.

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Nov 4·edited Nov 4

Everyone who was objective said it was a 6 or a 6.5 at best out of 10 window. Just above average.

And I didn't mind the Odegaard backup. We can't have a superstar level teenager and block his way permanently. And Spending on a player like Vieira again would have done nothing anyway.

I rather wanted a player like Olise who can play in the 10 and on the right too. Sterling was a good last minute stop gap. But he is just an out and out Winger.

We didn't do enough in the summer to overtake City. But I still have faith in the team and Arteta. And that is all it is.

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We really shouldn’t be making a 17 year old, any 17 year old back up for Odegaard. It’s unfair to the kid.

We should have had a rotational player with Odegaard, let’s not forget that there were too many games where even Odegaard went missing.

Instead, they let Arteta go after his whim and caprice… left footed central defender to play left back.

It was a travesty that we were seeking yet another left sided defender, when we didn’t have coverage for,Odegaard or Saka. That is even after we got rid of FIVE attacking players.

For me, the summer window suggested there was chaos and lossibly too many internal conflicts in the back room.

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I don't agree though. If a player is good enough, he is old enough. And Nwaneri looks good enough to backup Odegaard. And he had to be given the chance. And that is how we keep young players with elite potential. It isn't like we wanted him to be the starter like Cesc at 16. And we have seen what a 35 ml backup like Vieira might do for us. There is no guarantees.

My problem was the attacking reinforcements. I wanted better than Sterling but I still advocated for him on deadline day because I believe he is better than Nelson.

That Newcastle game was on Arteta and some of the players we have. Martinelli, Trossard both had shockers. And we didn't do enough in the window but we weren't good enough collectively.

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Calafiori is here to replace Magalhaes. Remember how he was frozen out at the begining of last season.

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Maybe you’re right but that money should have gone towards an attacking player.

When Cala was signed, many people accepted as …so long as we sign the requisite attackers …no problem.

That however, never happened.

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