BBC pundit shares the transfer mistake Edu made before quitting Arsenal

BBC pundit Chris Sutton has shared what he believes is a significant transfer mistake made by Edu Gaspar, before the club chief announced his Arsenal exit on Monday.

Edu brings end to five-year stay at Arsenal

The sporting director dropped news that supporters really didn’t want to hear on Monday, with Edu leaving his post and bringing the curtain down on a memorable five-year stay in north London.

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He’s got a growing reputation.

His pivotal decision-making, working together with manager Mikel Arteta, helped transform Arsenal into genuine Premier League title contenders and build the side we see today – who are performing at a very high level on a regular basis and competing for major silverware.

The 46-year-old’s departure from N5 is an extremely bitter pill to swallow, and it is believed Arsenal made a marquee last-ditch contract offer to keep Edu out of the clutches of Greek magnate Evangelos Marinakis.

However, it was to no avail, with Edu agreeing a deal in principle to work under Marinakis – where he will potentially head up development as a chief executive overseeing projects at clubs like Nottingham Forest, Rio Ave and Olympiacos.

Edu was responsible for key signings like Martin Odegaard, William Saliba and a club-record deal for England midfielder Declan Rice – even if he did have a few slumps along the way – like Arsenal’s £72 million move for flop winger Nicolas Pepe.

Edu led Arsenal’s pursuit of RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko last summer as well, but the Slovenian chose to remain at his current club and sign a contract extension. Interestingly, Arsenal also held talks to sign Raphinha in one of Edu’s final acts as director, with the Barcelona superstar electing to remain in Spain and now enjoying the form of his life.

Chris Sutton bemoans Edu mistake in Arsenal’s failure to sign striker

Speaking on The BBC’s Monday Night Club, via GiveMeSport, Sutton shared what he thinks was Edu’s significant mistake before leaving Arsenal – the club’s failure to bring in a new number nine before August 30.

Gabriel Jesus is under-performing right now, and a lot of the pressure lies on Kai Havertz to lead Arsenal’s line, with Sutton believing that their faltered attempt for Sesko, among others, could cost them dearly this season.

“It’s the centre forward, isn’t it? We’ve spoken about this many times,” said Sutton.

“Gabriel Jesus, watching Arsenal when I covered them in the Champions League against Shakhtar, played off the right. He’s not a natural finisher. He does a lot of good things, but you look at their centre-forwards, Arsenal play more often, they do a 4-4-2, they’re playing Havertz and Trossard, who are not natural centre-forwards. They’re good footballers, but they’re sort of in between.

“So the debate is, should Arsenal have signed a striker last season, but they spread the goals last season, and that was a positive thing. And I get that, but I suppose this season, when they look like they’ve dried up a bit, that’s when the argument that you need a goalscorer, a natural finisher there. I think that stands, and that’s an area where Arsenal fans would be thinking, well, blimey, maybe we should have gone big in the summer on a recognised centre-forward.”