Arsenal sporting director Edu Gaspar has hit back at people who mocked his and Mikel Arteta’s project at the club – former Gunner Mesut Ozil was one of them.
The Gunners have had a lot of disappointments over the last three years. There have been periods where many felt the club was going backwards, but Edu and Arteta always believed in the process. Now, we can see why.
Arsenal are on top of the Premier League table – five points clear of Manchester City. Even if we don’t win the title, we are on the right path, and Edu and Arteta deserve immense praise.
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Edu Gaspar says people laughed at Arsenal’s process
Edu, like Arteta and a few Arsenal boys, was in attendance at the London Football Awards on Monday night.
The Gunners dominated the event, with Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Aaron Ramsdale and Arteta himself winning four individual honours for their performances this season.
At the ceremony, Edu spoke to numerous media outlets about Arsenal, but one interview, in particular, caught our eye.
The Arsenal sporting director told Sky Sports: “When we started, we were talking a lot about ‘process’ and people would make jokes about our process.
“We were quite clear about all the steps what we went through. We knew we were going to go through some challenging periods because we had to make some important decisions, sometimes unpopular decisions, which were going to cause some instability. But importantly, we internally were quite together to understand the process.
“And then, we are where we are. There is still a lot to do, we are in the middle of it, there are still a lot of things to do and carry on doing, but also we are very happy and proud to see where we are at the moment.”
A subtle dig at Mesut Ozil?
Many people on social media made jokes about Arsenal’s process. We were in a terrible position on and off the pitch when Arteta arrived, and even though many didn’t want it to happen, there was always going to be bumps on the road.
There were moments when some fans turned on Arteta and called for his head after results didn’t go our way. That, in the heat of the moment, is probably understandable, but it’s sad when your own player tries to mock you.
At the end of August 2021, after Arsenal suffered a 5-0 defeat to Manchester City, Mesut Ozil felt the need to post a tweet presumably directed at Arteta. “Trust the process,” he wrote followed by a broken heart emoji.
Replies to that tweet show fans didn’t think for a second that his message was genuine. Edu’s message now could well be a dig at Ozil for mocking the process.