My Arsenal Blog

Arsenal have appointed Edu Gaspar, previously the technical director, as the first sporting director in the history of the club.

“We are delighted to announce that Edu Gaspar has been appointed as Arsenal’s first-ever Sporting Director,” the official club statement reads.

Having hung up his boots in 2010, the former Arsenal midfielder took up the director of football role with the last club he played for, Corinthians. He also worked with the national teams of Iran and Brazil, before joining the Gunners as the technical director three years ago. He was the first in the club’s history in that role too.  .......Read more here.....

Gabriel Magalhaes has signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal, the club have officially confirmed.

The Brazilian defender joined the Gunners in the summer of 2020 from LOSC Lille for a reported fee of around £25 million. Since then, he’s gone on to wear the shirt of the club on 83 occasions in all competitions, scoring nine goals and providing one assist from his position as a centre-back.  .......Read more here.....

Fabrizio Romano has put out an interesting new video where he talks about certain rumours and behind-the-scenes discussions involving Arsenal. The two topics the Italian transfer specialist covers there are technical director Edu and, unsurprisingly, Bukayo Saka.

The Gunners appointed their former midfielder into the role in July, 2019, in a very difficult moment. His first real task was to try and make sense of the situation that was the work of the trio of Ivan Gazidis, Sven Mislintat and Raul Sanllehi, and steer the club in the right direction from thereon. Arsenal had just lost the Europa League final to Chelsea and their hopes of returning to the Champions League were dashed, and a couple of months later, Unai Emery was sacked and Mikel Arteta appointed.  .......Read more here.....

It’s always difficult to examine a club’s transfer window when it’s just ended and that’s especially true in the summer, predominantly because we haven’t seen what’s happened throughout the first half of the season yet. There are still plenty of questions left to be answered in many different directions and while it may seem hard, reserving judgement is often the best way to go.

Alas, for those who wanted some answers earlier than that, Arsenal technical director Edu has obliged in the following interview with Arsenal.com.  .......Read more here.....

After failing to sign Houssem Aouar from Olympique Lyon late in the summer transfer window, Arsenal reportedly explored the possibility of bringing Dominik Szoboszlai of RB Salzburg to the Emirates. The Hungary international chose, however, to stay within the Red Bull family and is now set to sign for Leipzig.

Nonetheless, these attempts, coupled with the exclusion of Mesut Ozil from the squad, are obvious signs that the Gunners are working on adding some creativity to the midfield section. Speaking to a fan forum (as relayed by Sky Sports), technical director Edu confirmed that is indeed the case.  .......Read more here.....

Arsenal techical director Edu says the club are trying to resolve the situation surrounding Mesut Ozil at the moment, as relayed by the Mirror.

The German attacking midfielder is in the final year of his contract and he has been left out of the squad for the first half of the season, both in the Premier League and the Europa League. His omission from those lists has prompted some criticism at the expense of manager Mikel Arteta, and as things stand right now, those believing Ozil should have been given a chance appear to have a point.  .......Read more here.....

As you probably know by now, head of football Raul Sanllehi has left the club. And with the former Barcelona man being involved in so much of Arsenal’s dealings in the transfer market, The Athletic journalist David Ornstein has provided some insight into the changes expected in that aspect.

Not much is expected to change at first. Sanllehi has set things in motion when it comes to the dealings surrounding Lille defender Gabriel Magalhaes, Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey, as well as the talks about a new contract with captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The club will still pursue all those deals.  .......Read more here.....

Arsenal have completed and officially confirmed the signing of Willian from Chelsea on a free transfer. The winger has signed a three-year contract.

With his contract set to expire this summer, Willian was reportedly in constant negotiations with Chelsea over an extension, which intensified in the last few months as manager Frank Lampard reiterated his desire to keep hold of the player. However, Chelsea stood firm in their stance not to offer a contract longer than two years, which Willian obviously felt was unacceptable. Arsenal readily pounced and made the offer of a three-year deal which the player had been hoping for, wanting to remain in London.  .......Read more here.....

You’ve probably heard or read somewhere by now that there were some disciplinary issues with Matteo Guendouzi during Arsenal’s winter-break trip to Dubai, after which the midfielder was dropped for the Newcastle encounter. In his weekly column for The Athletic, David Ornstein has thrown some light on what happened there.

Apparently, Guendouzi was involved in a row with another player (whom Ornstein doesn’t name), after which manager Mikel Arteta spoke sharply to both culprits. However, it was Guendouzi who received a stronger reprimand, with Arteta perceiving him as the more guilty party.  .......Read more here.....

Edu, or Edu Gaspar as he’s better known, played for Arsenal for four years between 2001 and 2005. He was a decent player back in the day, but in the wake of his playing years, he seems to have carved out a pretty successful second career for himself in the world of football. At this moment in time, he is currently known for being the technical director of Arsenal Football Club – which isn’t a bad job title to have at the age of just 41.  .......Read more here.....