Saturday 20 July 2019 18:23, UK
Arsenal's newly-appointed technical director Edu wants everyone at the club to return to the winning mentality which made Arsene Wenger's side invincible.
The former Arsenal midfielder has been appointed to the newly-created role, which the club said will see the Brazilian "co-ordinate the work of our first-team coaching group, the academy and player scouting and recruitment in order to oversee the constant building up and efficient strengthening of our squad".
Edu, who was part of Arsenal's unbeaten 'Invincibles' squad of 2004, left a similar role with the Brazil national side following their Copa America success. He has now linked up with the Gunners again and reunited with Unai Emery, who he played under when he left Arsenal to join Valencia in 2005.
While Edu accepts it will not be an overnight change in mentality, it is a process he believes is vital if Arsenal are to compete for top honours once again, both at home and in Europe.
"To work with a strong mentality, you don't do it like that (instantly). You build a good mentality," Edu told Arsenal Media.
"When you talk about mentality, it's not only the players. The club has to have the same mentality of the players.
"We have to have the same mentality, and the mentality of Arsenal, we always had to have winning in front of us. That's football. That's the real world. When you're talking about good jobs, doing other things, without results I'm not sure [it works]. It's unfair maybe, but the reality is like that.
"We have to fight very hard for results and we have to understand the real world, where you live and where you are right now. So we are at Arsenal, we are a big club and we have to understand the situation.
"Winning... fight for winning, and how do you do that? We have to prepare ourselves. How? By working hard, by giving everything, giving us [a chance] to be better and better, and working really hard to be where the club wants to be."
Edu recalled how Wenger's squad would thrive off the continued quest for more success, which spread throughout the north London club.
"I remember we were winning a lot of things, our team was really strong and there were big names around, but the mentality of the group, the guys around, the staff, was so great," he said.
"We were working hard but at the same time, we were enjoying it. That was important because at the time winning was important, but you have to enjoy it as well and we did that with our group."
