Arsenal may regret selling Edu’s massive flop, who is now worth almost £59 million.

After a difficult few weeks in which Arsenal has struggled to win the Premier League, the news of Edu Gaspar’s departure felt like still more terrible news.

Along with Mikel Arteta, the Brazilian has been one of the club’s most visible figures in recent years, playing an important role in their remarkable transfer deals.

However, for all the Martin Odegaards, Gabriel Martinellis, and Declan Rices that the former Invincible has assisted the club in signing, he is also partially responsible for a fair percentage of their failures.

However, one of his recruits, who struggled at Arsenal, is now thriving away from the club and has received a big boost in value.

Arsenal’s 2021 signings
Arsenal signed a couple of players who’ve since become key first-teamers during the 2021 summer transfer window, so let’s take a look at them before moving on to the flop in question, beginning with the mercurial Martin Odegaard.

The Norwegian international joined the club on a six-month loan in January, and while he wasn’t bad, his return of two goals and two assists in 20 outings wasn’t particularly impressive.

However, it was enough to persuade Edu and Arteta that he was worth a £30 million investment; to their credit, the previous few years have shown them correct.

In 157 games for Real Madrid, the former wonderkid has scored 35 goals and provided 25 assists. He was elected captain at the age of 23 and has been severely missed in recent months.

Ben White, the club’s other first-team regular, came in the summer for £50 million from Brighton & Hove Albion.

The Englishman spent the majority of his first season at the Emirates as a centre-back, but when William Saliba made his debut for the squad the following season, he moved to right-back, where he has since thrived.

In total, the Poole-born “warrior,” as characterized by talent scout Jacek Kulig, has made 145 appearances for the Gunners, 99 of them at right-back, scoring six goals and providing 11 assists.

Unfortunately, while the Englishman has been a huge success at N5, another fullback Edu bought that summer hasn’t.

The Edu signing Arsenal may regret trading
So, among the confirmed transfer hits in the summer of 2021, Arsenal also signed Portuguese defender Nuno Tavares for £8 million.

The highly touted full-back was Edu’s first signing that summer, and while there was some hope for the player he may become in North London, it just didn’t work out for him.

Overall, the former Benfica prodigy made 28 appearances for the Gunners and looked quite threatening, but his main flaw was his defensive skills, or lack thereof, with Roy Keane criticizing him for being “sloppy” in a game against Nottingham Forest in January 2022.

The 24-year-old was finally sent on two very contrasting loan spells over the next two seasons, first to Marseille in 22/23, when he scored six goals in 39 games, and then to Forest last year, where he made only 12 appearances all season and was eventually frozen out.

With it appearing that the once-promising full-back had no future in the Premier League, the Gunners decided to loan him out to Serie A club Lazio again this season, but this time with a £7.5 million buyout clause if specific criteria were met.

Tavares’ senior career.

Club

Appearances

Goals

Assists

Benfica

41

1

7

Marseille

39

6

0

Arsenal

28

1

2

The Nottingham Forest

12

0

0

Lazio

8

0

8

All statistics are from Transfermarkt.

However, given how brilliantly the Lisboa-born sensation has begun the season, Edu and Co may regret introducing such a clause.

In his eight outings for the Romans, the “incredible” threat, as talent scout Jacek Kulig describes him, has already picked up eight assists – talk about a turnaround.

Unsurprisingly, this outstanding form prompted Lazio’s main owner and President, Claudio Lotito, to tell Italian media that he would not sell the defender “even for €70 million,” which is equivalent to a cool £59 million.

This revised assessment represents a massive 686% rise above the fee Arsenal will receive for the player at the end of the season.

Finally, while Edu and Co made numerous good signings in the summer of 2021, Tavares has proven to be something of a fiasco, since he was both mediocre on the pitch and now looks to be a huge opportunity squandered.