Edu: Sporting Director … or high-priced bagman?: Page 3 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Edu: Sporting Director … or high-priced bagman?

Don Pacifico

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68074110

Haven't got round to scrutinising the data but the headlines don't make for good reading in terms of having the 3rd highest losses on players. We laugh at Chelsea (and I get they pay high prices AND seem to have no coherent recruitment strategy) but the prices we pay versus the prices we sell at really need to be interrogated internally. #brokenrecord

Meatwad

Don Pacifico
that data is for the last decade so most of it isn't edu's fault.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Even the younger more promising players we sign who don't make it at Arsenal have there value tanked within 18 months.

The Value Destroyers™

Clrnc

Meatwad this decade won't make for many different readings tbh. We have improved but still don't sell well and we buy for huge amounts. Most of our players don't keep value well or rather we don't keep their value well.

Claudius

All that I read from those numbers is you reap what you sow. When we started saying the club is being badly run 8-10 years ago, that’s all those numbers show. Wenger and Gazidis started piling the club with bad contracts and it has taken forever to clean up house.

In any operating environment you need to look at the outputs and inputs/health. The inputs/health were bad for a long time and we’ve paid dearly for it. Only thing I’m happy about is we have finally steered ourselves away from that. Unlike United, for example, who are still stuck in that mode.

daredevil

Being good at selling is focusing on the wrong thing, and it's quite hilarious actually because we did that between 2008-2013 and people weren't any happier.

I don't necessarily want us to be a good selling club. We could have sold Henry at the back of the CL defeat and got 4 times the fee we got in the end. We could have sold Sanchez at the peak of his powers to Man City for £60m, but instead ending up swapping him for Mkhitaryan. Now of course, there were other fringe players who we could have sold after receiving bids when their stock was high. But that begs the question, why in gods name would we want to sell our players when they are doing well? Are we in this game to win trophies and give the manager the best players possible to succeed and keep them as long as possible, or do we want to make profits and churn through players so we can spend more frequently.

Don Pacifico

daredevil Being good at selling is focusing on the wrong thing, and it's quite hilarious actually because we did that between 2008-2013 and people weren't any happier.

I don't necessarily want us to be a good selling club.

Think there's an important distinction - we were a selling club but don't think we always did well in the price we sold them for.

Wanting to win trophies isn't just about buying expensive players - it's also about achieving suitable net transfer fees to facilitate as many additions to the squad as needed. Signing Raya on a loan is an example of where we've reached our financial limits, which arguably wouldn't be the case if we negotiated better prices.

Qwiss

daredevil We could have sold Sanchez at the peak of his powers to Man City for £60m

We absolutely should have. Should have got rid of Ozil then too.

daredevil Are we in this game to win trophies and give the manager the best players possible to succeed

Hopefully but the way to achieve that isn't to hold onto players until their value has plummeted in every given situation. The reality we are seeing now is we need players but we can't buy them due to our poor FFP situation. Edu is responsible for signing the likes of Cedric who's just hanging around doing nothing picking up his big wage packet. We haven't learned from any of it either, just look at Havertz. What a stupid gamble to give him those massive wages and hope he comes good. You can't just put players on insane wages if they aren't going to be a guaranteed key man in your squad.

Qwiss

Don Pacifico yup we got rinsed on the sales of Cesc, RVP, etc

Claudius

I am comfortable with where Edu is right now. Haven’t seen anything to concern me. Team is in title chase for second straight season. We are finally getting to some champions league knockout after 6 years. Let’s build on this.

Qwiss

Claudius I think its crunch time for him (probably not in reality but for me) because we are now at the limits of P&S rules so bad deals are going to hurt us. We have to sell better and smarter and TBH we need to spend smarter too. Dropping €35m on a Vieira or handing out wages like Havertz need more consideration.

Meatwad

Qwiss
damn havertz and vieira costing €100m+ is mind boggling. they were treating these transfers like the bill would never come due. oh the kroenke's say it's ok so let's waste money. and a lot of supporters were fine with it talking about how it's not their money. now because of a real FFP the league is saying hold up, wait a second you idiots.

Claudius

Qwiss I don’t like all the deals he’s done, but I’m happy with the vast majority. And when I go to other forums, I see similar discussions. Manchester City fans had a lot to say about replacing Gundogan with Nunes and Kovacic. Many also think that Philips was a waste of money and Grealish was terrible value. And most of us consider City a well-run, if corrupt, club. Go to every fan forum, and the same concerns about individual purchases arise. The real test is whether the overall group is working.

Qwiss

Meatwad and Havertz is on £14,560,000 per year which is the real killer. It means we'll never be able to move him on. He's earning more than some of our best players and he's not at the same level. Its a really silly way to spend money. If they'd paid Rice that last summer I'd understand but even he's on 2 million less per year. If Arteta and Edu thought Havertz was going to come in and be on the same level as Rice, Saka, Ode, etc its hard not to question what the fuck they were watching in the 3 years before he got here.

SimplyThePest

Qwiss Jeez, that's insane. Didn't realise that. Terrible deal.

Meatwad

Claudius
i don't consider city a well-run club. they can cover their mistakes buy buying another one.

Qwiss

Claudius City have always done bad deals but they throw so much money at it that it doesn't matter. We need to be a lot smarter.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Woeful deal. Honestly.

Coombs

Meatwad that's how everyone fixes mistakes.

Meatwad

Coombs
no. if you don't have the money you're screwed. we're lucky saka came through the same time pepe was a bust. if no saka we'd be fucked because there is no way after spending that kind of money on pepe that we would just do it again the next summer. and we're not spending another 60m plus trying to fix this havertz mistake.

goon

Coombs

Most don’t fabricate revenue to enable them to do it though.

Claudius

Meatwad this is one of those nature vs nurture arguments that casts Edu and Arteta as complete bystanders.

You will recall that when our kids were breaking through that Chelsea had possibly the most heralded academy in Europe. Lampard was brought in as coach during the transfer ban to introduce heralded academy players including Mount, Gilmour, James, Guehi, Lamptey, Broja. He also had CHO, RLC and Abraham at his disposal. Of that group, only James remains. The rest have since been turned over - a compete dissolution of one of the best academy classes in recent memory in England. That’s incredibly bad management.

It’s not just about the luck of having good players. You need to integrate and develop them. We’ve done that.

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