I was refreshingly encouraged to read about Eduardo’s first few months at Dinamo Zagreb in the ‘News of the World’ yesterday. The earlier pages of the paper relayed tales of Frank Lampard’s weekend of excess in Las Vegas (although with a wife like his, you have to question his sanity in sloping off with other women when she is back home with the kids), but our new signing’s description of his early days in Zagreb could teach a few lessons in life to mollycoddled footballers like Fat Frank.

In his first few months in war torn Croatia, the boy from Brazil was forced to sleep in Dinamo Zagreb’s stadium because the club couldn’t find him any accommodation. The heating wasn’t on and temperatures fell below freezing as winter took a grip. As he had nowhere to go, and little money, he would on occasion make a cup of tea last for hours in a restaurant. Just sitting there pretty much waiting for time to pass. I doubt his spoken Croatian was up to much at this time, and he would have been an isolated figure drawing on his own mental resources to keep himself sane. Sometimes, team-mates would invite him to their homes to give him a break, but underlying the majority of his existence was basic survival. Killing time with little to do and nowhere comfortable to do it.

It is the kind of experience that many of the young talents discovered in this country will never know anything about. Theo Walcott is unlikely to turn out as hardy a character with his life experiences in comparison to what ‘Dudu’ has been through.

And that is what makes me have a lot of faith in our new forward. Once you have lived through such hardship, you don’t take things for granted and are less likely to coast. It can create a desire and hunger to beat the odds. Those that have been through the university of hard knocks are more likely to be made of the ‘right stuff’ because of their experiences, and I doubt there is anyone on Arsenal’s books who has had it quite so tough in their development as professional footballers.

I’ve watched some of the youtube footage – it’s here and here for those that haven’t seen it, and although it’s a justified comment to state that Eduardo will come up against a better quality of defender in the Premiership, when presented with opportunities in front of goal, he certainly looks a better bet than the likes of Julio Baptista. I reckon that he could be good for at least 20 goals a season despite the step up in class, if only because of the number of scoring opportunities we know Arsenal can create.

One thing seems for certain though. He won’t be complaining about the cold weather or whingeing about wanting to return home to Brazil. He won’t be flying to South America with the attendant jet lag for World Cup qualifiers. And his head won’t drop easily when the going gets tough.