Edu successor's job just got harder as Arsenal hit with new blow to Mikel Arteta's title aims

Arsenal are in the process of looking to replace the now-resigned sporting director Edu Gaspar. The Brazilian surprised the club to a degree when he announced he would be leaving amid links to Evangelos Marinakis’ multi-club model.

Since then, Arsenal have been concerned with on-field matters but with the January transfer window closing in and a reported meeting in America with the owners to discuss the situation it appears the process is ramping up. Several names have been linked with the role including Thiago Scuro, Tomas Rosicky and Roberto Olabe.

However, the potential role overtaken by whoever is given the job has perhaps been made harder. Mikel Arteta has needed to deal with many injury issues throughout the season and this has raised the expectation over future squad-building.

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Making sure the losses of the likes of Martin Odegaard, William Saliba and Bukayo Saka are not felt as greatly as they have been. Having creative depth through the squad is certainly an area where the club need to find a new gear.

However, the news that Ben White is set to miss upcoming games after undergoing a minor procedure has only worsened the situation. Saliba’s suspension against Liverpool was covered by White who played as the centre-half that day.

Now the team will be reliant on Saliba not getting any further suspensions or missing games. They will also be hoping to have the services of Riccardo Calafiori and Takehiro Tomiyasu after the international break too which should ease the pressure.

Future deals certainly need to take into account established injury records. The club have done this already and Jurrien Timber, White and Tomiyasu only suffered with their increased fitness issues after their moves to north London.

But now the likes of Tomiyasu as well as Oleksandr Zinchenko should probably be replaced as the side has simply not been able to rely on their attendance due to these problems. That will be on the shoulders of the new sporting director to not only replace them but maximise any potential sale price.

Edu received plenty of scrutiny for not selling well enough until the latter stages of his tenure. This will be an expectation from the off for whoever takes over and quite rightly so, a lot of work has been done in the past 18 months to change the reputation of the club in the market.