A lot of former Arsenal players love to give their opinion on the state of the players, manager and club as a whole and for the most part, they talk a load of cobblers. But not always.
Stewart Robson will not go down as an iconic Arsenal player but I have to say that reading his latest comments he does make a lot of sense.
Speaking to ESPN, the former Gunner had this to say about Unai Emery and the position the Spaniard finds himself in.
“It was a disappointing campaign,” Robson said
“They could have got in the top four last year, but they fell away at the end.
“They could have won the Europa League but they didn’t and fell away against Chelsea.
“It needed restructuring, they lost a lot of players like [Aaron] Ramsey, Petr Cech has gone which I think is probably a good thing now.
“I think there’s a whole list of players that have left Arsenal.
“They’ve brought one player in, Martinelli from Brazil.
“They need a lot of new players, they need a new philosophy.
“I think Unai Emery may be running out of time.
“He hasn’t got the bloke they brought in to do the transfers [Sven Mislintat], he’s left, so he obviously didn’t get on with Unai Emery.
“Unai Emery needs a good start to the season.
“If he doesn’t get it, he is going to be under massive pressure.
“If he doesn’t buy players and doesn’t seem to get the team in the right shape for the start of the season, Arsenal are going to struggle.”
No doubt a lot of fans will feel that Robson is talking nonsense, that he is not giving Emery a chance and that Arsenal is not a sacking club, however, he does qualify everything with Emery needs a good start to the season.
Because if the start is not good then everything will be in play, the loss of Ramsey, lack of signings, the Laurent Koscielny farce, no Champions League football etc.
Emery cannot be forgiven a second poor season, it is just too costly to the club in terms of finances and stature and if the signs are there early on then would anyone really be surprised if the club decided a parting of ways was in everyone’s best interests.
So, you can question the credibility of Robson but you cannot dismiss his opinion out of hand.