Arsenal’s Brazilian Sporting Director and former player Edu Gaspar has left the club, and his departure has come as a shock to most fans. Edu has been an influential figure at the club in their rebuild, helping to bring in Arteta and players such as Gabriel, Ødegaard, Rice, Raya.

He initially came in as a technical director working under club CEO Vinai Venkatesham. Later he was promoted to Sporting Director in November 2022 after a structural rebuild of the club’s hierarchy.

The former Arsenal midfielder has been linked with a move to take over as a board member overseeing Evangelos Marinakis group of clubs. Those clubs include Nottingham Forest, Olympiacos and Rio Ave. They are even thought to be considering purchasing a fourth club too. It’s thought that Edu is the front-runner to take over at Nottingham Forest and oversee their sporting decisions and utilize their multi-club model.

“He’s a really good man,” former Arsenal CB Martin Keown said on Talk Sport this morning. “This will be a loss to the club. There’s no doubt about that. But there is huge stability there already with Tim Lewis on the board.

“Richard Garlick now is someone that really impresses me and of course the manager. But he’s helped to bring a stability to the club, change the culture back to what we would have seen in the past. It will affect the players because he’s at the training ground every day. There’s a working relationship.

“The players do have a great deal of respect for him. It’d be hard not to like him. I think in the main the signings have been good. The club’s started to turn around.

“The DNA of the signings now has become very physical, hasn’t it? Less technical. And the club is definitely on the way back. It’s a shock. But of course it can never be about one person.”

Although Edu hasn’t signed many players directly from South America since being at Arsenal (only Marquinhos and Pablo Marí), the Brazilian manager has often preferred to sign or target players from Brazil. Signings of Brazilians included Gabriel Magalhães, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Neto, David Luiz, Willian, Marquinhos and Jorginho. Some of his key targets whilst at Arsenal were also Brazilian too in Raphinha, Douglas Luiz, Bruno Guimarães and Lucas Paquetá to name a few.

Nottingham Forest have also heavily recruited from South America too. This summer they signed Ramón Sosa from Talleres in Argentina and Carlos Miguel from Corinthians in Brazil. Previous signings from South America include fan favourite Murillo, Danilo, Gustavo Scarpa all coming from the Brazilian topflight. South Americans Domínguez, Andrey Santos, Gonzalo Montiel, Renan Lodi, Felipe, Morato all signed from European clubs. They are a club who already recruit from these markets and Edu is someone with a good relationship with teams in Brazil and with extensive knowledge of Brazilian footballers so this may be a good fit for him and Nottingham Forest.

Most of Evangelos Marinakis’ clubs are in a good situation right now. Nottingham Forest are in red-hot form rising to 3rd in the Premier League this weekend, Olympiacos are fourth and only three  points off the top team Aris FC, Olympiacos also won the UEFA Conference League last season and their U19’s won the UEFA Youth League too. 

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Rio Ave on the other hand haven’t started the season as good as Forest and are 14th out of 18 teams in Liga Portugal. Rio Ave’s current squad includes players loaned in from Nottingham Forest (Omar Richards, Jonathan Panzo) or Olympiacos (Antzelo Sina) to gain experience. 

If Edu does end up at Forest, he may look to utilize this connection to develop players and use a wider scouting network.

“But Arteta, does he lose a big ally? Does he need a big ally? Does he already have a relationship with those that make the decisions? I would suspect so,” Keown added. “I would suspect that ultimately. Will it be an advantage? It depends if they bring a better sporting director in.

“If they bring a better sporting director in, that’s got a wider brief, that’s got a better understanding of being able to acquire even better players than the ones that Edu did… I’m not entirely sure that all of Edo’s signings were the greatest signings.

“So with that in mind, you’ve got Arsenal being challenged on the field right now and people perceive it as being challenged off it now.”