Edu explains reasons for each Arsenal signing in £156.8m splurge

Joe Williams

Technical director Edu has given a detailed explanation as to why Arsenal made six signings that has left their fanbase underwhelmed this summer.

The Gunners splashed out £156.8m – including potential add-ons – on Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Ben White, Martin Odegaard, Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu this summer.

It would normally be a reason to rejoice but some Arsenal fans are worried that only a couple of the players are ready to make an impact in the starting XI.


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Edu has been working on the new signings with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and when put to the Brazilian by Sky Sports that only two of his six signings were ready to go straight into the first team, he replied: “You see the strategy; for every single name I can explain to you the reasons.

“Aaron Ramsdale, for example, he is a very good football player and has the potential to be a big part of the team in the future.”

Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves interjected: “For the future…”

Edu continued: “For the future of the team. What he wants to do is to balance that position and why do you bring him in? We already have one player there to play games with Bernd Leno. But, we have to bring someone in to help for the future.

“Then, at right-back, we just signed Takehiro Tomiyasu. He is someone who can come here and plays straight away because we loaned Hector Bellerin to allow space for him to come and feature straight away.

“That’s the plan but of course, it’s up to Mikel if he plays or not.

“And then, if you go to Nuno Tavares, he has the same characteristics because we have Kieran Tierney there to play, but we needed someone to cover him.”

Nuno Tavares Arsenal

When pushed again that only White and Odegaard will improve the team, Edu added: “We suffered last year because we lost a lot of players and we didn’t really have good back-ups to play games.

“I believe we need a squad to win games. We need a squad to be in a good position at the end of the season because it is not only about the first XI. Again, we need a foundation. We need players to play and then we need players to cover the first XI.

“Now let’s put it into context. For example, in the midfield, you have Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey. So, for me and for Mikel it doesn’t make sense to sign another player to be on top of them if they are the ones that are going to be playing.

“That’s why we chose Albert Sambi Lokonga to help them. If you go up front we have Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka, Nicolas Pepe and Gabriel Martinelli. I want to see them playing together.

“In the number 10 position, we saw a gap there because we just have Emile Smith Rowe. We needed a number 10 with the same quality to be there, help and play.

“Where we needed to spend big, big money, for me and for Mikel, that was in the centre-back position because we needed someone to fill that position. David Luiz was leaving and this was the one where we needed someone to come here and straight away have an impact on the team with the right profile of what we believe for the short, medium and long term.

“That was Ben White. That is why we went there and signed Ben White to give the squad what the squad needed.”