David Ornstein shares how people within Arsenal really felt when they found out Edu was leaving
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Edu is leaving Arsenal at the end of the season.
The north London club's Sporting Director is set to depart at the end of the season, despite Arsenal's best efforts.
Indeed, Arsenal tried their best to keep Edu, but, sadly, the Invincible will be leaving to potentially join Evangelos Marinakis at Nottingham Forest.
This news was certainly a bombshell when it emerged this week, and speaking on The Athletic FC Podcast, David Ornstein has shared how people within the club reacted when they found out Edu was leaving.
The journalist says that there was a lot of confusion around Arsenal when this news broke.
How people at Arsenal reacted to Edu news
According to Ornstein, a lot of people at Arsenal only found out Edu was leaving when the initial news story broke in The Mail.
The journalist says that there was a lot of confusion around this story, and many within Arsenal were uncertain about what this meant for them.
"There was no suggestion that it was a serious possibility that Edu would be leaving. It went quiet for a while. In recent weeks, we received fresh information that this was actually happening," Ornstein said.
"Now, we made our checks and we got a bit of pushback, we got a bit of confirmation, but we weren’t quite there to run the story. Then fast forward to the beginning of this week, great scoop by Sami Mokbel in the Daily Mail that Edu was leaving. Many people at Arsenal found out via those news stories.
"It was confusing for many of them. It would have created a lot of uncertainty. What does this mean for us? What does this mean for me? Why is this come about now? So many questions swirl around.
"The bottom line is that even if this is something that was going to come about, maybe at the end of the season, for example, Arsenal would have had time to prepare themselves for it. But coming at this point in the campaign is a real jolt. It’s their third season in which they’ll try to challenge Manchester City and Liverpool and others for the Premier League title."
What next for Edu and Arsenal?
Edu is leaving Arsenal, so what's next for both parties?
Edu is likely to join up as a part of Nottingham Forest's ownership group under Evangelos Marinaks, and, currently, it's unclear whether or not Arsenal will replace the Brazilian.
There are plenty of Sporting Directors who are available right now, but with Mikel Arteta growing in power at Arsenal, perhaps he will take the reins in terms of recruitment.
Jurgen Klopp largely took over recruitment at Liverpool when Julian Ward left the club, and perhaps Arteta will take up a similar role at Arsenal.
Ian Wright says he wants Edu to be replaced by someone who will sign a new striker, but whether or not Arsenal do decide to go in that direction remains to be seen.
It will certainly be interesting to see how Arsenal navigate a post-Edu era as this is a massive change at the Emirates that could seriously affect on-field matters.
