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Hello. Edu quitting Arsenal — should we all have seen it coming?
On the way:
🌲 Inside Edu’s departure
🇫🇷 France leave out Mbappe — again
👀 Shock MLS sacking
😬 Euro keeper’s kick-off mishap
Explaining Edu’s exit: Why sporting director left Arsenal — and what now?
To most of us, Edu’s resignation as Arsenal’s sporting director this week was a bolt from the blue. To many inside the club, the development came as a big surprise too.
Not so the Arsenal board. And, to gauge by the inside track on Edu’s exit, not Evangelos Marinakis either. Edu attended the Greek shipping magnate’s last birthday party — the pair are tight. They’ve liaised on transfer deals previously. The brave leap (sorry; irresistible challenge) of joining Marinakis’ multi-club group is not something Edu accepted on a whim.
Marinakis owns three professional teams: Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, Olympiacos in Greece’s Super League and Rio Ave in Portugal’s Primeira Liga. Edu, the 46-year-old Brazilian who was part of Arsenal’s famous Invincibles team, will have high-level influence across all of them. Terms are being finalised and he’ll serve six months’ gardening leave before Marinakis sets him to work.
This story has several strands: the matter of why Edu jumped ship, what it means for Arsenal, how top sporting directors are ever more sought-after, and the extent to which multi-club ownership is in vogue. We’re here to discuss all of it.
Changing the club
For six years, Edu has been at the forefront of changing the landscape at Arsenal. Via various key decisions — appointing Mikel Arteta as manager, reframing transfer policy — the club regained their competitive edge, making the Premier League title theirs for the taking, twice.
That they let it slip on both occasions does not change the fact Arsenal are exceptionally well run, in no small part down to Edu. And while he helped create a recruitment department which will crack on in his absence — Arsenal are due to hold a high-level meeting about transfers next week — he’s not an easy man to follow.
I gleaned three things from our deep dive into his exit. One, Edu was finding the somewhat convoluted way in which those above him approved signings a touch frustrating. Two, he wasn’t totally impressed by the influence some around Arteta had on things like the aborted bid for Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garcia in August. And three, his ambition is greater than a single-club role.
Arsenal plan to replace him. Interestingly, Arteta will have a say in who the next sporting director is. That’s unusual because in club frameworks, managers or head coaches are generally lower down the food chain than director-of-football types. At the Emirates, they’re considered to be equals. Perhaps that was another thing on Edu’s mind.
Multi-talented
This, for Edu, is bigger than Arsenal. Frankly, he would not have left them to join Forest alone. That represented a step down. But a multi-club role, which is what he will take on, is more international and arguably more prestigious. It’s something Edu aspired to involve himself in.
You’ll remember that when Liverpool’s owner, the Fenway Sports Group (FSG), courted the club’s former sporting director Michael Edwards last season, Edwards didn’t want to rejoin Liverpool. He asked for (and got) a broader strategic job within FSG.
Marinakis (above) is some boy and, I’m guessing, not the easiest person to please but I was being facetious when I joked about his offer to Edu being a brave leap. It’s a major gig and it’s on trend. The pay will be tasty. Multi-club ownership is football’s present and it’s very much its future. Edu wants to be part of it. Others will follow. This isn’t the shock it seems.
- Don’t miss any of our breaking news on Arsenal. Our dedicated WhatsApp channel brings you all the latest from the Emirates, as soon as it happens.
News round-up
Euros Zone: Chelsea trash the Ark
‘Parking the ark’, which FC Noah tried to do at Chelsea last night, was a brave concept. It also carried long odds. The Armenian braves sailed into Stamford Bridge. They lost 8-0. C’est la vie.
In some ways, the game only increased my love for the Conference League. There’s a degree of stupidity about clubs you’ve never heard of tangling with billionaire powerhouses but it’s different, I’ll give it that. Almost every Chelsea player cashed in on Noah’s outclassed defence. Mykhailo Mudryk’s strike, above, was the pick of the eight.
Elsewhere, in the Europa League, Manchester United beat PAOK with two goals from Amad. Job done — and dissected on our Talk of the Devils podcast.
But Tottenham Hotspur regressed again by losing to Galatasaray. Nineteen-year-old Will Lankshear, on his second senior outing, scored and got sent off. Not quite Harry Clarke, but close. More than anything, a 3-2 defeat shone a light on the depth of Spurs’ squad. It was thin yesterday and it’s not quite ready to cope with big absentees.
Never mind all that, though. Please explain to me how any Europa League side concedes a few seconds into the second half, as Midtjylland did against Romania’s FCSB (Steaua Bucharest for us oldies). I’ll be honest — I’d have flown home without goalkeeper Elias Olafsson.
Union Split: Philadelphia part ways with Curtin after 10 years
Jim Curtin and Philadelphia Union are synonymous. He’s been a fabulous head coach for them. But yesterday, Curtin and Union parted company after 10 years together. It’s one of those calls which shakes the ground.
Curtin paid for the first poor season Philly have had in a while. They were well off the pace in the Eastern Conference and although I assumed he had ample credit in the bank, the club and their owner, Jay Sugarman, obviously envisaged regrouping without him.
Is this a warning shot to others in the league? Because it’s on the line for some big hitters this weekend. Inter Miami have to beat Atlanta United to go through the MLS Cup’s first play-off round. Likewise LAFC against Vancouver Whitecaps. If either of the top seeds fall now, the ground will shake again. And don’t rule out major consequences.
MLS Cup, round one (times ET/UK — all MLS Season Pass/AppleTV):
Today: LAFC vs Vancouver Whitecaps, 10.30pm/3.30am. Saturday: Cincinnati vs New York City, 4pm/9pm; Orlando City vs Charlotte, 6pm/11pm; Inter Miami vs Atlanta United, 8pm/1am.
Around The Athletic FC
(Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
Quiz question
With Chelsea and Arsenal doing battle on Sunday, can you name the 11 players to have scored a Premier League goal for both clubs?
As ever, you can find the answer here later today, or in Monday’s TAFC.
Catch a match
(Selected games)
Saturday: Premier League: Brighton vs Manchester City, 12.30pm/5.30pm — USA Network, Fubo/Sky Sports; Liverpool vs Aston Villa, 3pm/8pm — Peacock Premium/TNT Sports; La Liga: Real Madrid vs Osasuna, 8am/1pm — ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports; German Bundesliga: RB Leipzig vs Borussia Monchengladbach, 12.30pm/5.30pm – ESPN+/Sky Sports; Serie A: Juventus vs Torino, 2.45pm/7.45pm – Paramount+, Fubo/OneFootball.
Sunday: Premier League: Manchester United vs Leicester City, 9am/2pm — Peacock Premium (not shown in UK); Chelsea vs Arsenal, 11.30am/4.30pm — USA Network, Fubo/Sky Sports; Championship: Sheffield United vs Sheffield Wednesday, 7.30am/12.30pm — /Paramount+/Sky Sports; La Liga: Real Sociedad vs Barcelona, 3pm/8pm — ESPN+, Fubo/ITV4, Premier Player; Serie A: Inter Milan vs Napoli, 2.45pm/7.45pm — Paramount+, Fubo/TNT Sports, OneFootball.
And finally…
(Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)
Atalanta are at home in Serie A on Sunday, which will please their supporters — most of whom were banned from last weekend’s rousing 3-0 win at Napoli.
Napoli-Atalanta has a history of crowd trouble, so people with Lombardy postcodes (the area of Italy where Atalanta play) were restricted from buying tickets. But one solitary fan — Steven Faughnan, a Scot with an address in Edinburgh — wangled his way into the away end, much to the amusement of stewards who can never have had it easier there. He lived to tell the tale.
(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
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