Martin Keown believes Arsenal’s Edu may be leaving the club due to him wanting to return to his home country.
The Gunners’ sporting director is set to make a shock Emirates exit, and has been linked with a role working across Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis’ group of clubs – Forest, Olympiacos and Rio Ave.
The former Arsenal midfielder has been a key cog in Mikel Arteta’s club rebuild, with him helping to recruit stars including Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice and William Saliba.
Now, it appears the Gunners will have to push for their first Premier League title in over 20 years without him – and former Arsenal midfielder Keown revealed his theory as to why Edu might be leaving.
Reacting to the news on White and Jordan, Keown was asked why Edu wouldn’t want to see out his ‘project’ at Arsenal.
“Well, I don’t know for me what could be better than being in that role for Arsenal,” he said. “He may want to return home to Brazil.”
Edu – who was born in Sao Paulo and came through at Corinthians – joined Arsenal in 2001, before leaving for Valencia in 2005. He returned to the club as technical director in 2019.
The Gunners went on to win the FA Cup in 2020 and Edu was promoted to sporting director in 2022.
Just two months ago, Edu spoke about looking forward to the future of the club and working with Arteta after the Spaniard extended his contract.
But now, the Brazilian looks set to leave his close friend behind.
Reflecting on the job Edu has done, Keown said: “Ultimately, it took him a while to get going, didn’t it, Edu? I mean, he needed some support from those above him.
“I think the biggest change in Arsenal was a greater investment in time and inclination from the Kroenke family. And I think that’s been mirrored in Josh Kroenke becoming much more visible and much more engaged with Arsenal post the challenges of the European Super League and Arsenal’s climb down from that position.
