HIT or MISS: Ranking Every Arsenal Signing Under Edu!

With the massive news that Edu Gaspar has left Arsenal, I thought it would be good to look at all 35 signings he made at the club. How many have been good, how many have been bad?

[classicdansmith]

Jorginho’s been a quality signing. Experience backup, great mentality and personality. It’s not like he’s expected to be a starter

[JKWESITV]

N Pepe wasnt an Edu signing he was Raul Sanllehi

[benoliver]

I feel like a lot of the players you put in miss have been a part of our journey and without them it wouldn’t have happened. Tierney, Zincenko, Partey all helped massively to bridge the gap

[oGunners]

Hey Joe keep that injury energy when talking about some of the United lot too🤣

[daynehaworth]

1. Excellent signings under Edu
Rice
Odegaard
White
Saliba
Gabriel
Trossard
Raya
Partey
Martinelli

2. Good signings under Edu:
Havertz
Zinchenko
Jesus
Tomiyasu
Jorginho
Timber
Ramsdale
Tierney
Ceballos

3. Average signings under Edu
Lokonga
Tavarez
Kiwior
Turner
Trusty
Pepe
Ryan

4. Poor signings under Edu
Marquinhos
Vieira
Runnarson
Mari
Cedric
Luiz
Willian

5. Jury's Out:
Merino
Sterling
Neto
Calafiori
Setford

Thoughts?

[iazan]

Absolutely agree with your comparison between Odegaard and Rodri. That's totally true. And also it's really hard to have a good enough player willing to be a rotation option to one of the best midfielders in world football. So, naturally, the team will take a step back when he's not on the field.

[skippymatrix]

Partey was one of the best players in the team at one point. I thought you were going to put him in to hit without any hesitation😂 gasped when he went in miss

[initman]

Having party in miss is a miss judgement, even with his injurys hes pivtol for us, when hes not played weve looked dreadful and lost a lot of games, when Arteta thought he could push him to right back last season we lost games, at one point he was the best central midfielder in the league, Rodri has gone to another level now and party has dropped off but hes still class in the middle for us. theres a reason he's the only surviving member of the squad. other than that i think your spot on. I think worset signing is Willian and best is Odegaard, could have been Martinelli but hes falling off a cliff :(

[divyanshbahuguna]

I think having Zinchenko in the fail category is very harsh, dude was a superstar signing, and I am not sure if Arsenal would have been able to sign big players, if someone like Zinchenko had rejected them

[Alexander-kmut]

Biased, but as a backup Kiwior has been solid, never brought in to be a starter, young and much better than our backups (i.e. Cedric and Holding) in past years.

[lukebarrett]

Some of those ‘miss’ players are ludicrous. Partey has been one of the most important players ever since joining, Tierny was probably our best defender under Emery and did great in his first few seasons, Tomiyasu always performs when he’s fit and Zinchenco/Jesus were instrumental in Arsenals first title challenge in almost a decade. I think there is way too much recency bias in a lot of these picks forgetting how well they did for long periods at Arsenal.

[prince__junior]

David Luiz, a hit signing?

Okay that's enough watching you.

[jamesheyburn]

Tierney miss is sad. My past future captain

[EliCoolio]

I feel Zinchenko was a hit, he propelled them so far forward that he became insignificant, but without him they wouldn’t have been propelled forward at all

[dominicpalmer]

I think broadly you can generally put Edu's signings into two buckets, pre-2021 and post 2021. The pre-2021 era was largely Arsenal continuing the previous regimes attempts to sign older players or back ups in a poor side which given where Arsenal were at the time meant they often lacked the right quality (Mari/Willian) or were young players Arsenal hoped would become big players (lakonga/Tavares/Martinelli) and post 2021 his incomings have largely been a success and have helped push Arsenal to new levels - as seen by the fact Jesus/Zinchenko starting as revolutionary signings and are now arguably surplus to requirements

[jacknorman]

You’re wrong about Partey. Forgetting the allegations, before his big injury he was arsenals most important player. Now he has a bit-part role. But he’s never not been good.

[conorf]

I'd love for you to mention wages alongside transfer fees. I understand they're usually only estimates/rumored but its still much better than talking fees alone. Ben White compared to Varane highlighted this

[lewiseagland]

idea for you Joe, could rank every PL club transfers this decade so far (by Jan half way through the decade) could just do in but could do ours as well, profit / spend. might take a bit of research but could be interesting

[xVibeChecked]

i feel like this list is fairly accurate, only one that really sticks out as underrated would be Tomiyasu for me. the rest i can see an argument for

[g-monk]

Really like this type of program. Would like to see this on every GM that leaves their club and has at least 4 windows of experience. What would also be interesting is your thoughts on what percentage is good, bad, or meh in respect to signings, because looking at this video I would say Edu failed miserably. I know you like talking the big teams but I think you are on to something here, do more clubs, please.