Beware Arsenal FC Eulogies This Remains A ‘Process’

What a difference a year makes. Ahead of the 2021 season, some Arsenal fans were calling for technical director Edu to be fired.

Dismayed about the performances of signings, such as Willian and David Luiz, supporters argued the Brazilian was out of his depth and needed replacing.

“Arsenal should sack Edu as the inexperienced technical director can’t be trusted for summer rebuild,” said fan blog PainintheArsenal, “more fingers need to be pointed at Edu.”

It was a sentiment echoed by former Arsenal midfield Paul Merson, “It’s worrying at Arsenal. You’re still thinking, where are they going? Edu has come in, and the recruitment has been lazy if I’m being honest.”

A member of Arsenal’s legendary ‘Invincibles’ side Edu was a lightning rod for criticism, a symbol of the unpopular Kroenke ownership regime’s missteps.

Manager Mikel Arteta’s stock was not too much higher either. The inconsistencies shown by the side had prompted criticism, but the overarching feeling was he was dealt a bad hand because of poor strategy higher up.

But fast forward a year, with the club sat on top of the PremierPINC
League, suddenly the Brazilian is being praised.

A transfer window, where the club landed the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, has been hailed a masterstroke, the perfect compliment to Edu’s continued faith in youth players.

Now it is his “genius transfer calls” Arsenal fan writers like Bailey Keogh of Football.London is highlighting.

“The current summer transfer window has epitomized the successful job Edu has carried out to ensure Arsenal remains at the top in the years that are to follow,” Keogh wrote.

“While rival clubs continue to franticly panic buy to improve their team before the end of the window, Edu has already undertaken the necessary ground to ensure this is not the case for the north London side.”

It would be ridiculous to suggest that in the space of 12 months Edu had somehow acquired the “experience” to become a technical director whose recruitment isn’t “lazy.”

What the reversal of the narrative shows is the importance of maintaining perspective in good times and bad.

The ‘process’

If reports at the time of Edu’s criticism were to be believed it wasn’t just the fans who were considering his future.

Some media outlets suggested the club was exploring the possibility of replacing him with Marc Overmars, Ralf Rangnick or Michael Emenalo.

Despite not generating the same ire amongst fans, reports linking Arteta with the sack have been even more frequent and the Arsenal boss has revealed he developed methods for dealing with this possibility

“It will happen. Today, tomorrow, in a month, in ten years. I don’t know when it will happen,’ he told Michael Calvin’s Football People podcast, “that cannot drive my emotion and this cannot be the reason why I do certain things or not.”

Such level-headedness is a virtue in sports, the noise, particularly around modern soccer, is so intense it pushes everything to extremes.

The exhaustive online analysis of defeats, drops in form and disappointing signings is such that it often feels, at any one time, that multiple clubs at the elite level require wholesale root-and-branch reform.

But constant overhauls are not the basis for success, as Arteta is acutely aware.

“We have to respect the process,” the Spaniard said back in 2020 when asked about the scale of the task at Arsenal, “but we will get it right I am convinced of that.”

Since then there have been many moments when Arteta must have had to hark back to that sentiment.

From the disastrous start to the 2021/22 season to the collapse at the end of it, which cost the club Champions League soccer, belief in the long-term vision has been essential.

The phrase ‘trust the process’ was popularised by former Philidephia 76s general manager Sam Hinkie who wanted to communicate to the basketball team’s fanbase that if they had patience in its long-term rebuilding plan they would be rewarded.

Supporters bought into the philosophy even chanting the slogan at games and the team was able to rebuild.

Ultimately, however, it was only a qualified success the club never delivered a title to truly vindicate the struggle.

At Arsenal, we are beginning to see evidence that faith in its process might yield some dividends on the pitch.

But, until it has been delivered, the possibility remains that managers and fans alike will have to fall back on that long-term vision again.

In the same way, the dramatic criticisms about Edu look ridiculous a year on, the proclamations of genius are early too.

To be successful both Arteta and those above him will need to block out all the noise good and bad. If they can patience might well be rewarded.