Arsenal sporting director Edu Gaspar has had a busy start to the summer transfer window, to say the least.
The north London outfit recruited Kai Havertz from Chelsea last month in a deal worth £65million. Priority target Declan Rice was then pursued before the Gunners eventually agreed to pay West Ham United a club-record £105million for their captain, with an official announcement expected sometime this week.
Amidst the Rice move, Arsenal's transfer for Ajax defender Jurrien Timber has somewhat gone under the radar. The Dutch international is also yet to officially be unveiled by the club but that is also thought to be coming in the next few days.
football.london understands that the deal will cost Mikel Arteta's side €40million (£34.2million) with a potential further €5million (£4.3million) in add ons. Transfer guru David Ornstein, who broke the news of the Gunners' opening bid for Timber, reported that Ajax wanted around £50million for the 22-year-old, highlighting Edu's impressive negotiation skills during the deal.
The Brazilian transfer chief has often been criticised by fans for his ability to secure large transfer fees when selling players and failing to sign players for less than the selling club's original valuation. But the fact that Arsenal are paying £16million less than the Dutch club had originally wanted for Timber shows that he is improving in this regard.
Speaking to Sky Sports at the London Football Awards back in March, Arsenal sporting director Edu Gaspar discussed criticism of Arsenal's process. He said: “When we first started, we were talking a lot about our process, and people were making jokes sometimes about our process.
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"I think we were quite clear about all of the steps that we went through. We knew we were going to go through some challenging periods because we had to make some important decisions, sometimes unpopular decisions, which is going to cause some instability.
“Importantly, we internally was quite together in terms of understanding the process. And then, we are where we are, I know there’s lots to do.
"I think we are in the middle of it [the process], there’s still a lot of things to do, and carry on doing, but also, we are very happy and proud to see where we are at the moment as a club.”
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