Arsenal was one of the teams that targeted Jude Bellingham when he broke through at Birmingham last season.
However, if it wasn’t for Edu, the Gunners would have secured his signing long before he would play over 30 games for the Championship side’s first team last season.
Bellingham was the top teenage transfer target from England in the last transfer window as the likes of Manchester United looked to sign him.
However, he ended up at Borussia Dortmund and now Tony Adams has revealed that Arsenal had the chance to sign him before he became widely known.
The former Arsenal player claimed that the Gunners had scouted him and their chief scout had virtually secured the deal for his transfer after watching the teenager play.
However, when Arsenal made Edu their new sporting director, he came with no experience of Premier League or European football and he decided not to pursue the move for the teenager.
Adams told Sky Sports News as quoted by Football London: “The chief scout was absolutely bowled over by Jude Bellingham & the great prospect that he is. The chief scout had the deal, kind of, done.
“The new sporting director, Edu, came in from Brazil & had no European experience no UK experience & he got lost.”
Adams has been known to exaggerate. Contact made, and deal being done are two completely different things and I’m not convinced the “deal was done”. Overall, yeah, I can believe it because we’ve been hearing these stories for years and years. And this is why major scouting changes have been made behind-the-scenes.
We don’t attract these top kids anymore, ours are fleecing because no more development and transition to first team nor game time….
Look at the waist made of Nelson, Rowe, Nketiah, as Niles before them.
What about Saka? How many times did he play as a number 11 he is?
Last and this season? As Niles forced to play out a position when they on pitch…
Why would we bring back Nelson, Rowe and Nketiah from loans?
Nketiah had a bit of hard time with Bielsa, all football does, but also know his savoir faire.
To bring him back as done for Nelson after few months to not play him..
All this and what we see since Wenger left shows how much he was doing beside coaching team.
A club Manager or President he should be today in Arsenal FC.
It is not Kroenke at all, but the poisoning fans who were awful and so disrespectful; to the Prof of football, a legend, in a class of his own.
They all here talking bad about him til this day here, and how good is Arteta.
We can’t get those kids because of that awful image and attitude towards football’s favorite Prof….
He is indeed very hard to replace, he is part of the brand even more so than Alex at Man U.
Never too late and perfect time, fans are not allowed for a long minute!
To the poisonous fans? What and you feel Wenger did not deserve the abuse he was given? If you had spent the thousands of pounds each Season it costs to watch the games week in and week out then you might well feel differently PAL. Wenger got off lightly in my opinion and even when the club eventually SACKED him, he should have been made to go there and then.
What is clearly obvious is any epl clubs would have paid through their nose to get the boy.