Edu salary revealed as new West Ham fear emerges amid new Arsenal role

West Ham are concerned that technical director Tim Steidten could be set to replace Edu at Arsenal. The 46-year-old shocked the Gunners earlier this week after announcing that he was leaving his post as sporting director.

Edu is now on gardening leave and has a six-month notice period, meaning he will be able to take up a new job ahead of next summer's transfer window. The Brazilian has been lined up to become the global head of football for Evangelos Marinakis and his multiclub structure.

Marinakis, who has Nottingham Forest, Olympiacos and Rio Ave as part of his football empire, is prepared to pay Edu £5million per-year to take on that position, according to The Telegraph. It's set to be triple to the amount he was earning at Arsenal after taking up the sporting director role in November 2022.

READ MORE:Declan Rice injury latest as Arsenal brace for nightmare triple Chelsea scenario

READ MORE:Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak decision made - Dream Arsenal squad after January transfers

Following Edu's surprise departure, Arsenal need to find a replacement. It has been reported that Steidten is someone could be in the running to join the Gunners. The German joined West Ham in July 2023 and has been in charge of recruitment and scouting, working closely with sporting director Mark Noble.

Since David Moyes left the club in the summer, Steidten is said to have had more control. West Ham have spent over £100million on new players, including Crysencio Summerville, Niclas Fullkrug and Max Kilman, but haven't seen much improvement. It's added that some players, such as Guido Rodriguez from Real Betis, were wanted by Julen Lopetegui, while others were identified by Steidten.

Despite this, The Telegraph say that if Arsenal or any other club made an offer to hire him, West Ham would want him to stay. Before moving to the London Stadium, the 45-year-old previously worked for Bayer Leverkusen and Werder Bremen, having enjoyed a short professional playing career before retiring in 2009.

Arsenal have endured a difficult run of form since the turn of the last international break. They have failed to win any of their Premier League matches, including back-to-back away defeats against Bournemouth and Newcastle. The Gunners head to Chelsea on Sunday looking to return to winning ways.

Speaking ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge and his side's recent run of form, Arteta said in his pre-match press conference: "When you don't win it affects the mood and energy but the positive thing is that it is impossible that anyone in this room or outside wants to win more than I do, and these guys in the dressing room want to do.

"Today (Friday) I had a meeting with them about it and I can sense it straight away. What I sense as well is a big belief about how good we are as a team, and again what we did in Milan watching it back twice, I hadn't seen my team doing that against them.

"But you need to take that into a winning football match because, in the end, that is the only thing that anybody is going to judge, not how superior you were to the opponent, that you outrun the opponent, you out-performed the opponent in every single way.

"It is about how they scored a goal and you didn’t. We have a problem, and the problem has to be resolved by scoring more goals than the opponent - that’s it."