Edu has revealed that Arsenal loaned out Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi this summer because they asked to leave the club.
Both midfielders fell down the pecking order at the Emirates and the Gunners were in the market for a new midfielder.
Torreira has struggled to play for much of the time that he was at the club under Mikel Arteta.
Guendouzi was enjoying a run of games in the team before he fell out with Arteta during project restart. The Frenchman didn’t feature for the team again since June.
Arteta claimed that he would get a fresh chance to play for the Gunners this season, but that chance never came.
As the end of the transfer window drew closer, the Gunners needed to get rid of some of their players, and they eventually moved both midfielders out on loan.
Torreira joined Atletico Madrid while Guendouzi joined Hertha Berlin, Edu has revealed that both players asked to leave to play more games.
He told Arsenal.com: ‘The market situation was really strange. It was difficult to manage well because nobody was 100% comfortable to do the deals.
‘Even loan players or to swap players was even more difficult. I think we did it quite well. If you see Lucas Torreira, if you see Matteo I think for them it was really really important to move, play more games, be more comfortable and happier because both came to me and Mikel to talk about the possibility to go to have more game and play more minutes.
‘When you see the clubs they went to it was brilliant. Lucas went to Atletico Madrid which is a very important club going to play Champions League.
‘They play quite a nice system, the way they are playing for Lucas Torreira then you see Hertha Berlin and it’s a similar situation with Lucas. To play more games, develop his career and of course we are going to be following them because they are still Arsenal players and this is important to mention.’
