Edu lays out Arsenal transfer blueprint, Cristiano Ronaldo Talks about Lyon midfielder deal

Arsenal technical director Edu says his vision is for a recruitment department of “less people with much more responsibility” as he plots a new approach to signings in north London.

Amid 55 reductions in the club’s permanent staff Arsenal let go of a string of high profile scouts, including head of international recruitment Francis Cagigao and their experts in nations such as France and Germany.

Edu had conducted a similar downsizing of Arsenal’s academy scouts midway through last season.

His new vision, which has been put into practice this summer with the signings of Willian, Gabriel Magalhaes and a second loan spell for Dani Ceballos, is for a smaller department with an increased role for the data team that was led by Jaeson Rosenfeld until his departure in March.

“It is simple for me,” said Edu. “With my position here I want to put in place one clear process how we are going to sign, who gets the responsibilities, where we start to understand where we need the player, the position we need, the characteristics we need. That has to be very clear internally right now.

“The decision we made, to change a little bit our infrastructure, it is clear for me. I want to work with less people. I want to work with StatDNA [Arsenal’s in-house data company] a lot more, which we have internally here at the club and is very important.

“The people I want to work with, I want them to be very close to me. I want to create a group of people working together.

“I don’t want individual people working in one area or for one country. I want a group working together. Less people with much more responsibility. That is my vision and for me in this process the most important thing is that everyone is very clear on the responsibilities which everyone has to make the right decision.”

Cristiano Ronaldo wants Juventus to spoil Arsenal’s transfer plans

Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly keen for Juventus to seal the transfer of Lyon midfielder Houssem Aouar this summer.

The Serie A giants could do with making some changes after a slightly underwhelming campaign in 2019/20 that saw Maurizio Sarri replaced as manager by Andrea Pirlo following an early Champions League elimination.

Lazio midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic looks likely to join Juventus, CaughtOffside understands, but it could be that Aouar would be a tempting option for them too.

According to Don Balon, the Frenchman would be Ronaldo’s ideal choice for that position, but this could be bad news for Arsenal.

The Gunners have been strongly linked with an interest in signing Aouar, as reported by L’Equipe and translated by Get French Football News.

The 22-year-old looks a top young talent who could strengthen most top clubs in Europe right now, and one imagines he’d fancy his chances of winning more silverware with Juve.

Still, Arsenal are also a team on the up under Mikel Arteta and he’d likely have a key role to play as a long-term replacement for the out-of-favour Mesut Ozil.