Eight-man shortlist for Arsenal job before Emery took charge revealed

Three former Arsenal players on eight-man shortlist before Emery got the job.

Arsenal may not have to work too hard to replace Unai Emery as the Spaniard continues to struggle this season because they have already done the hard work.

The Gunners named Emery as manager on a two years deal last summer, but they had a list of eight candidates they could have picked someone else from.

The revelations in the Athletic where made by former BBC reporter David Ornstein.

Emery was picked ahead of the likes of club legends Thierry Henry, Mikel Arteta and Patrick Viera. Max Allegri was also on the shortlist as well as Ralf Rangnick, Julen Lopetegui and Jorge Sampaoli.

Allegri is currently out of work after winning seven consecutive Serie A titles with Juventus. Thierry Henry flopped at AS Monaco and Patrick Viera is currently thriving at Nice.

Emery’s position has come under serious scrutiny after Arsenal blew a two-goals-lead against Crystal Palace at the weekend.

The Spaniard will be out of contract by the end of the season. A failure to return the club to the Champions League next season could spell an end to his reign.

Max Allegri is the most accomplished manager on Arsenal’s shortlist and has decided to take the year off. Should the Gunners want to name him as their manager next season, they would have to fight off interest from a host of other top sides including Manchester United.

21 Comments

    1. supported. Emery should go now and Freddy can take over the position until the end of the season and who knows ? he may get the job for life if he performs well.

    2. 100% agreed. I feel that appointing Freddie will light a fire under the team and maybe, if we’re lucky, propel us into the top 4. If we stick with Enery it’ll be another year out of CL football. Emery is too busy thinking about the other team that he doesnt bother coaching to our teams strengths. This team has no style and no identity thanks to him.

  1. Arteta has worked for Moyes, Wenger and Guardiola, hence he has knows the strengths and weaknesses of each manager. He is also a La Masia product, so he has learned from the best training programmes at the best football academy in the world

    Unfortunately Arteta is too young to control senior players like Ozil, Sokratis, Luiz, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Aubameyang, Lacazette and Xhaka. The good thing about Arteta is he has a vast EPL experience, which is the criteria Arsenal should look for from the candidates

    Rodgers has that experience and he seems to have learned a lot in Scotland. However, we still don’t know whether he can handle big pressure at a big EPL club, because he failed to handle it at Liverpool

    1. Why would Rodgers leave Leicester for Arsenal now? Who is doing better? I think many of us Arsenal fans are still living in lalaland.

    2. Arteta is ‘too young to control senior players’?

      What utter nonsense. He will be 38 in a few months. And as a former excellent player why would he have a bigger task in ‘controlling senior players’ than the young Mourinho, for example? Or other good managers who were mediocre players or didn’t play at all?

      1. You make a sound point. The comment saying differently was frankly, stupid, and showed lack of sense. That does not mean that I want Arteta, though I DO WANT Emery sacked .

    3. How did you come to the conclusion that Arteta is to young to control any player for that matter? You don’t need weapons to control people (like Emery who needs ego) you only need the right mentality and approach.

  2. emery is far to defensive-if arsene had this team now we would not be performing this badly !-emery does not even know his best team thats why the changes every week !!-bring in arteta-he has beem with man city and is well respected at arsenal

  3. Given the lack of transfer budget at the time I am sure that some of those names would have rejected the job even if it had been offered to them. That may well still be the case.

    I seem to recall at the time that Allegri and Enriques were both reported to want a considerable amount of money to spend on transfers.

    Bearing that in mind, and the Kroenkes previous approach to their American teams (apparently) being to get a young talented manager in and let him develop with the team, I wouldnt be at all surprised to see Ljungberg or Viera get the nod next.

    Have to see how well that goes.

    1. Grimlar, you are exactly right. Not only did both want a massively increased transfer budget and high personal terms, they were not happy to work under Arsenal’s then new management structure, where they would be “Head Coach” , rather than “Manager”.

  4. Anyone who thinks Allegri would come to Arsenal are placing misplaced hope in our club.

    We are not ambitious enough for Allegri. He will go Man U where they are willing to spend big in the transfer market to back their coach in. We won’t.

  5. It starts with Arsenals next match against Liverpool. Win it and Emery is safe for the season, lose it and the skids are ready. Either way he should not be at Arsenal next season. Freddie should be given his chance to prove he`s the man for the job as coach, no fancy panic buys.

  6. Arteta,working under Wenger as a player, who (Wenger) has the best football culture as a coach and now he’s under Guardiola, he has the ability to head arsenal coaching staff.

    But this would have been effective immediately after Wenger because now Emery is changing the style of play from that of Wenger of whuchbis the reason why arsenal is like that

  7. Emery will not be sack,Arsenal don’t sack coach, therefore, Emery will definitely finish this season come what may. He could still be here next season because the contract he was giving is 3 years and not 2 years.

    1. Glorious, Arsenal holds the option to extend Emery’s contract into the third year. If he doesn’t meet the performance criteria under his contract, Emery’s contract will be finalized.

  8. “Patrick Viera is currently thriving at Nice.”

    LOL

    They are 15th in Ligue 1. Last season their attack was 2nd or 3rd worst in the league.
    No thanks. Better than Henry, but not quite good enough yet.

    Arteta may be a gamble, but like said previously – coached under Guardiola, played under Wenger and Moyes, progressed as a player through Barcelona’s academy – if he has a brain he must have learned the best from those experiences…

  9. We also need a manager who has a strong personality so when the manager speaks the players listen and respect him someone like maybe Viera with Freddy or berkamp who knows the premier league Emery is to worried about the other team does not focus on his players ….PSG got rid of him because he was picking the wrong players for the game and he comes across as to negative he loss the dressing room and got the sack. Exactly what he is doing now, the difference is he losing matches instead of winning them

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