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Arsenal have been steadily improving for the last three years as Mikel Arteta’s project has started to come together.
However, over the last few weeks, some cracks have started to show.
Arsenal are now three without a win in the Premier League, and they also lost to Inter Milan in the Champions League in midweek.
To make matters worse, there’s also unrest behind the scenes, as Edu is set to leave Arsenal as the club’s Sporting Director.
Arsenal were apparently left confused by Edu’s decision to leave, and writing in his column for , Paul Merson has expressed some serious concern about this situation.
Paul Merson worried about Edu departure
Merson shared his concerns about Edu’s departure.
The pundit says that this doesn’t look good, comparing Edu leaving to the departure of David Dein all those years ago.
“It will be a big miss and reminds me of David Dein leaving Arsenal. The quality of player they brought in was phenomenal while he was at the club,” Merson wrote.
“Then he left and there were a lot of players who played for Arsenal and were not good enough. We will have to watch this space.
“They have bought well in recent years and I hope I’m wrong but it does not look good. It is not a good one. The quality of player changed then and hopefully it is not the same case this time round.”
Arsenal’s last 10 signings before Edu arrived
Merson has concerns about Arsenal’s transfer business once Edu leaves, and history would suggest that he’s right to worry.
Indeed, to say that Arsenal’s transfer business pre-Edu wasn’t up to standard would be accurate.
| Arsenal’s last 10 signings before Edu arrived | Fee | Date |
| Denis Suarez | Loan | 31 Jan 2019 |
| Matteu Guendouzi | £8m | 11 July 2018 |
| Lucas Torreira | £27m | 10 July 2018 |
| Sokratis | £15m | 2 July 2018 |
| Bernd Leno | £22m | 1 July 2018 |
| Stephan Lichtsteiner | Free | 1 July 2018 |
| Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | £56m | 31 Jan 2018 |
| Henrikh Mkhitaryan | Swap Deal | 21 Jan 2018 |
| Kostas Mavropanos | Undisclosed | 4 Jan 2018 |
| Alexandre Lacazette | £47m | 5 July 2017 |
As you can see, Arsenal’s last 10 signings before Edu’s arrival were very hit and miss.
In fact, none of these players are currently at the club, which shows just how unsuccessful this recruitment drive was.
Of course, there were some successes such as Bernd Leno and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but, by-and-large, these were players who just didn’t cut the mustard at Arsenal.
Arsenal’s transfer policy in recent times has been very clever, and they mustn’t lose that identity once Edu leaves and revert back to their old ways.