Edu – Zinchenko ticks all the boxes

It’s been a busy transfer window so far, with five players joining the club in the past five weeks.

We spoke to our technical director Edu to discuss the latest signing, and the club’s next moves in the transfer market.

Read on for a full transcript of the interview…

on signing Zinchenko…

I'm very pleased to see how we're working as a team here in the club. We put a plan together and some plans in place and Zinchenko was on the list. We've been very proactive to start to talk to the agents, to start to talk to Man City and we are pleased to have the player here because he has the attributes which I am sure are going to put our squad in a different level.

on Zinchenko’s character…

That's what we're looking for more and more because it's so important to have a player that has the characteristics that we're looking for, but also the mentality of the players. It's important to have these important guys in the squad, because we have a very exciting future to put the club in the right way. For that, for sure we need good characters, good guys and someone who has a big personality as well to help us to be there. Zinchenko has exactly what we need because Mikel has worked with him before and they know each other very well. That of course helps us to make the decisions because sometimes you can have a very good player, but sometimes they don't have the mentality that we are looking for. That's something we have to be really careful about. So that's why Zinchenko was the one who ticked the box of what we were really looking for.

on speaking to Mikel about the Zinchenko…

For sure, for sure. Every single player that we target, we discuss a lot every single point. As I mentioned, characteristics, the mentality, the commitment of the players, this is so important to understand before you really go into target the players. So yeah, of course Mikel and myself had a big discussion about him as well.

on the signing fitting into our transfer strategy…

That's the plan. That's the plan in place. As I started saying to you, I'm pleased because when we plan something and we've been very proactive to start to do things and we have a lot of support from the club, from the owners, from everybody around us to stick to the plan and go for the players that we target. That's the teamwork, you know and I'm so proud because I can see the plan that we did six or seven months ago happening today in the right way. So, it's really nice to see the way we're working today.

on Zinchenko linking up with his new team-mates…

For sure, part of our plan is to try and sign the players as soon as we can to have all the players together in the pre-season. Of course, some players take a little bit more time because you have to negotiate, we have to convince, we have to talk, so there are a lot of things around it, but our main focus in the beginning of the transfer window is try to get the players that we target as soon as we can to enjoy and to be here and to be together and to start the season the way we planned it as well. It's so nice to have him here and then he will have opportunities to know his colleagues, the coaching staff, even the owners, everyone It's important to the player's adaption, so it's nice to have him here.

on the role Jesus played in the signing…

Mikel is telling people our strategy to sign players! No, of course, we have to use what we have, not to convince, but to talk to the players that we target because there are some doubts, there are some ideas, there are some comments to the players to make them feel really comfortable and of course, Gabriel and Zinchenko have played together so they know each other very well. We just said to Gabriel to explain to him what is Arsenal because he's already faced it, he's already here and he's really enjoying it. So that's why we used a little bit of Gabriel to talk to him as well.

on possible outgoings…

We have a plan for every single player in the squad and that's why I said there's still a lot to do in this transfer window because we have to balance the squad in the best way possible. For the players who probably aren't going to have a lot of minutes here, we have to expose the players to have minutes in another place to keep developing the player, keep the player's valuation et cetera, so that's the way we plan it.

on the business so far…

I'm pleased, but to say how close is difficult because there's still a lot to do, we are in the middle of the transfer window and things can happen. What we have to be is really focused and be prepared for every single situation, opportunities maybe can happen, clubs can sometimes come to us to see if there is a possibility to get players on loan or buy players. We just have to be prepared and I think we are very much prepared for almost everything.