Edu has been busy this summer, bringing in five players including both Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City for a combined £77million.
The Brazilian has lifted the lid on the successful talks which convinced Jesus to sign, and made clear the squad needed a "winning mentality" after missing out on the top four to Tottenham.
As such, not every transfer target pans out. Arsenal pulled out of talks with Raphinha as the player had his heart set on Barcelona, and Edu says talks with an unnamed Borussia Dortmund player were ended as they did not go as planned.
Detailing his process to reporters, Edu said: "Face to face — I go there, I meet the player, if I have to travel to Germany, anywhere. I want to see the player, the agent, the family, put everyone together and say, ‘Guys, listen to me and what I want to say’.
"And then I sell what we are doing, our project. Because it works both ways, doesn’t it? I want to show them, but I want to see as well if they want to enjoy because if I smell something wrong (then) thank you very much, I go (and don’t sign them).
"I faced an experience like this, for a player in Dortmund. I started to talk to them, engage the player, talk to the family, but always, ‘Yeah, but what about my contract?’.
“I said, ‘Listen, I want to understand first if you engage with this, if you like this. If you like it, I can talk, but not the opposite side’. ‘Ah no, let’s talk about the money…’ No, no, no, no. And one day, I said to the agent: ‘Guys, thank you very much, it’s not what I want to do’. Boom."
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