by Edu has sensationally resigned as Arsenal sporting director and is likely to join the network of clubs led by Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Nottingham Forest.
The Brazilian’s shock departure will end five years in the club’s senior management and means manager Mikel Arteta will lose one of his key allies. The strong relationship between the two men is no secret, but Arsenal will now have to recalibrate. There are currently no planned successors for a role that did not exist at the club before Edu took up the role in November 2022.
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It is understood that Arteta, as a member of Arsenal’s management team alongside executive vice-chairman Tim Lewis and chief executive Richard Garlick, will play an important role in deciding the next steps.
“It was an incredibly difficult decision to make,” Edu said. “Now it’s time for another challenge. Arsenal will always be in my heart. I wish the club and its supporters only good things and all the best.
Arsenal have emerged as title challengers since the return of their former player Edu, initially as technical director, in July 2019. He was heavily involved in Arteta’s arrival five months later and grew in influence after the departure of Raul Sanllehi, their head of football, in August 2020. With hits and misses early in his tenure, he became seen as an integral part of an aggressive and effective transfer policy that saw players like Martin Ødegaard , Declan Rice, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães and Gabriel Jesus arrive to transform the profile of the Arsenal team. The club’s recruitment structure has been overhauled and they have shed the baggage carried by expensive, experienced names such as Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
There have been frustrations in the most recent windows, with the lack of genuine replacements for Ødegaard or Bukayo Saka and continued uncertainty over their centre-forward position being the main issues. Arsenal are fifth in the Premier League this season after a patchy and injured start in which they have rarely regained their best free-flowing form of the Arteta era. However, none of this appears to be a factor behind Edu’s departure.
Edu’s links with key members of the Arsenal hierarchy extend beyond the close friendship with Arteta and his resignation is believed to have been handled on good terms, rather than being the result of internal conflict . Although a consequence of long-standing interest on Marinakis’s part, his impending departure had not been widely reported. The precise timing of his release may depend on the compensation agreed with his next employer, as well as other contractual formalities.
He is now in line to take up a senior position within Marinakis’ group, potentially that of managing director involving oversight of the entire network. Forest, Olympiakos and Portuguese club Rio Ave are the three clubs currently under his control, but expansion is considered likely in the near future. Edu, who has been offered a package worth far more than his current tenure in north London, is said to see the role as the next step in his career progression.
The 46-year-old was director of football at Corinthians after ending his playing career and, before returning to Arsenal, had been coordinator of the Brazil national team. His lack of experience in European football administration had seemed worrying at first, but he is now ready to take on a new challenge working for the ambitious and controversial Marinakis, whose Forest team were a surprise to the season and occupies third place in the ranking. the elite.
A timely reminder of the circus that tends to surround Marinakis came on Monday morning when the Football Association confirmed his appeal against a five-match stadium ban for spitting had been rejected. The Greek shipping magnate was suspended after being found guilty of committing an offense against match officials following Forest’s match against Fulham on September 28. An independent regulatory commission described it as “a blatant display of disrespectful behavior”.
