I wonder if they are smoking crack over there, or are they also impressed by his "Connections" in Brasil?
But bro, wouldn't you agree that that is precisely the problem? What is your role if you just making up the numbers? I mean, of course me being an idiot I am assuming that the club wants to win instead of just being Top 4 trophy winners.
Absolutely, someone being “basically fine” in that role for us is a failure. We need someone in that role to be exceptional to be able to compete with who we want to compete.
We’ve built something that has in the last two seasons come within spitting distance and then a hair’s breadth of taking down the most relentless and inevitable team in the history of European football. So it’s kind of hard for me to say that Edu or this team are ‘abject’ in any way. Now, sure, we’ve spent a ton of money along the way, but the idea you’d get this close without that is farcical on its own, let alone when you consider the depths we had to climb from. Ultimately, we have no idea whether Edu was good at his job, or great, indifferent or shitty. We just can’t possibly judge that on anything other than results. Now when we’re having a rough stretch, we look to blame someone, but that can only lead to disappointment when it turns out that replacing the person doesn’t prove us ‘right’ that he was the problem all along. We can always just turn our ire towards that replacement, but the reality is there’s so much that goes into this level of competition that there’s no silver bullet. I can only encourage my fellow supporters to try to enjoy the times when you are genuinely competitive, because there’s no guarantee you’re going to get over the hump when you have the chance and there’s no guarantee these times will last or when they end that they will return any time soon. (Please note none of that is meant as any kind of defense of Edu. He has always struck me as a glad-handing self-promoter who is undeniably charming but who carries dubious credentials. But that is from such a distance I can’t possibly be confident in that assessment.)
Fair points. IMO when you spend that kind of money you gotta win. It's that simple. When you don't you get the blame. Arteta has the full control and support now. Let's see what he does. I'll also add, I judge Edu mainly on the lack of quality without Odegaard and Saka. Think they could have done better than what they did. So yeah I think he was wack. Because again, if you look at what they got for the money they spent, if it was any other club everyone would be laughing their ass off.
We play at San Siro in a little over 24 hours. If anyone wants to make that thread, please go for it. If nobody does it by later this afternoon I'll do it.
Cannon Stats has a very thought provoking take here, which is not under their paywall. https://www.cannonstats.com/p/farewell-edu Key quotes: The second quote is why I think "basically fine" is a good thing: there aren't many execs who would have done things differently? But I also think that if Timber stays healthy last season, we probably win the league.
He has done a decent job and is a nice guy with a good connection to the club let’s move on, no need to say he was shit like @DutchCane as he wasn’t
I think you see this in a lot of sports now. Teams stay really succesful even when big names in the front office or training staff go. Where it falls apart is if you lose your whole culture like what happened at Utd.
And while Saliba was signed before Edu arrived, his injury the season before derailed a mostly Edu/Arteta team in their push for the title. Re this seasons bad patch, Arsenal have also had multiple key players out through injury, Odegaard being the most significant. BTW, his signing of Odegaard wasn’t just favorable terms, it was Highway robbery.