Edu confirms disappointing transfer talks with Dortmund star

Edu Gaspar has admitted talks with a player in Dortmund, but was convinced that he wasn’t the right player for Arsenal.

The Gunners have moved to bring in five new players already this summer as we ready our squad ahead of the new season, and Edu clearly has his own thoughts on the type of player he wants.

The Director will only consider signing players that want to be playing at the Emirates, and only wants signings who are eager to buy into our project.

“Face to face — I go there, I meet the player, if I have to travel to Germany, anywhere,” Edu told The Athletic. “I want to see the player, the agent, the family, put everyone together and say, ‘Guys, listen to me and what I want to say’.

“And then I sell what we are doing, our project. Because it works both ways, doesn’t it? I want to show them, but I want to see as well if they want to enjoy because if I smell something wrong (then) thank you very much, I go (and don’t sign them).

“I faced an experience like this, for a player in Dortmund. I started to talk to them, engage the player, talk to the family, but always, ‘Yeah, but what about my contract?’.

“I said, ‘Listen, I want to understand first if you engage with this, if you like this. If you like it, I can talk, but not the opposite side’. ‘Ah no, let’s talk about the money…’ No, no, no, no. And one day, I said to the agent: ‘Guys, thank you very much, it’s not what I want to do’. Boom.”

This is exactly what I want to hear. It almost seems silly to think this isn’t how all clubs operate, but clearly certain players have their priorities.

There is no hint at all, but I wonder if Edu could have been talking about Erling Haaland here, who has since joined Manchester City. I imagine he had been promised some major salaries by a number of clubs before deciding to move to the Etihad.

Is there a calibre of player who can get away with making negotiations based predominantly on their earnings?

Patrick

Tags Edu Gaspar

12 Comments

  1. Maybe Zagadou, left footed cb and currently without a club after leaving on a free. 23. Would seem more likely than Haaland and fits the profile we’ve been looking at. Fact he’s failed to find a club yet seems to fit the money part as well. Rumours of Roma, Inter (which he’s distanced himself from), Juve, Man United and West Ham all being interested.

  2. It’s all speculation without a name, date, or more context to Edu’s statement.

    Regardless, bold move by Edu and I fully support his walking away. He has said before that too many players were comfortable with London, big salaries, and no little pressure to win trophies.

    I suspect this way the “culture” change Arteta was referring to, and getting rid of those players was paramount; even giving them away.

    Hard to mention these concerns when cleaning house and not further damaging player’s value.

    Perhaps this was part of the patience shown by ownership to rid the squad of these slackers.

    However, a owner who is present could have removed this earlier on, absentee owners reacted to this problem far too late.

    I’m sure Emery would have appreciated support from the board regarding this matter, rather than the malcontents downing tools and the board happy to let Emery take the blame.

    Would love to read a full accounting of these incidents, unfortunately it will never happen.

  3. Brandt would be a possibility here. I’m a Gooner, but we weren’t in serious running for Haaland. And he knew he could pick his salary anyway.

  4. While I agree with the way he’s assessing the character of potential signings, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to air it publicly.

    Now they all know what to say.

  5. So what happened with vhlahovic ? We chased him a whole window knowing he didn’t buy into the PROJECT

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