Arsenal players reacted to Unai Emery’s sacking with sadness claims Freddie Ljungberg.
Football is a very fast game and managers often pay the price when their teams don’t perform to a required standard, and that is exactly what just happened to Unai Emery.
The Spaniard led Arsenal to the final of last season’s Europa League before losing to Chelsea. Arsenal fans expected a better season this time around but the team failed to build on that achievement.
The last straw was their 2-1 loss at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday night.
Arsenal has now named Freddie Ljungberg as their new manager on an interim basis. The Swede starts his reign this weekend when the Gunners travel to Carrow Road to face Norwich City.
When asked how the players reacted to the news that their former boss had been sacked, Ljungberg revealed that the players were a little sad about the development.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “It’s a bit of a strange one.
“Not strange but a bit of sadness there, we had a coach for a long, long time, he was a good coach and also other coaching staff that all of a sudden disappear.
“It is a very cut throat thing in football and of course players are emotional as well and they will react on that.
“What I will tried to do was be as respectful as I could in that sequence and then after that when I trained the players, I just tried to take sessions where there is a little bit of excitement.
“Try to make them not think too much and just enjoy themselves and hopefully get them in a good mood because we had a game on Thursday, there was not the whole squad.”
Well. considering how the players performed for Emery I am not sure they were that sad to see him depart. But regardless, it is time to move on now.
Well, once again the players (if this is true) see things completely differently from the fanbas as a whole…but we move on aad I hope everyone gives 100% to freddie and per.
O.T. I’m just wondering when the club will announce what match the fans can expect to see the T shirts saying “Adios Unai”, present him with a gold award for the twenty game unbeaten run and let him keep charge of the team for the rest of the season, so we can find another manager, along with the fireworks and book of acknowledgement to be signed by tens of thousands of gooners?
Hang on though, of course, the club officially announced that they SACKED him…here today and gone tomorrow, that’s what SACKING means.
I’m getting muddled up with AW’s resignation and what the club did then. Easy mistake to make I guess.
thanks to arsenal board for a reasonable decision which were made to ask the club coach to leave before it get worst.one more thing,let the players be unite and focus.
their problem…..
Arsene is gone now Emery is gone, but the club is still here and so are the fans. That’s what’s important.
Managers, players, owners come and go, only the club and fans remain.
Durand, agree with you completely and a new era should unite the fans.
However, it seems some fans still do not understand the difference between sacking and resigning and still insist they got AW sacked…just thought I would point the differences out again, now that a REAL sacking has happened at the club.
I won’t mention it again, as long as others don’t make the claim – how’s that?
Now looking forward to freddie and per spreading some happiness, starting at Carrow Road.
Looking for exciting attacking football, with a defensive set up that actually works…we have the players, of that there is no doubt.
Wenger was told to resign or be sacked. So he resigned, very reluctantly. Any Arsenal watcher knows full well that Wenger would never have CHOSEN to resign if he had a choice. If you want to call that a true resignation, then go ahead. It fools few others.
Interesting Jon, you are now saying he reluctantly resigned, not sacked.
I haven’t seen anything from the club that he was told to resign or be sacked, unlike the announcement from the club regarding UE…please can you point out where this was officially announced as you state, because I hate to be fooled?
The trouble is Jon, there has NEVER been hide nor hair of such a statement has there?
Surely you can see the difference between UE and AW’s departure and how the claim that both were sacked (as been the case made about AW by some) bears no resemblance whatsoever?
I can agree that he was reluctant to resign, he believed he could still succeed and that was why he gave the club six months to find and plan for a new manager/coach, while still putting up with the abuse from some sections of the fanbase.
If the board wanted him gone, why give him the rest of the season to manage the club Jon, it makes no sense whatsoever, ESPECIALLY as UE has been sacked in order to try and get something out of this current season does it?
But who told him to resign and when?
Exactly Benjamin, exactly.
It’s the first I’ve heard that he was told to resign or be sacked, that’s why I have asked Jon for factual confirmation of his statement…if he can’t, then it is just a personal opinion not borne out by the clubs actions regarding UE.
The “sacking” scenario fits into a certain argument about AW, but as we have now seen The Arsenal ACTUALLY sacking a manager/coach, this claim cannot be substantiated and that is what should be recognised, no matter how much individuals may want it to be otherwise.
But, as you see, it isn’t!!!
Spot on!in Arsène s own words,he would never break a contract and i believe the man!you don’t spend 22 years at a club just for money,he loves arsenal and if you doubt it well….
I doubt all were sad.
Anyone in Ljungberg’s situation would say that
Don’t get me wrong, I’m ecstatic about the removal of Emery, but this club can’t afford to have a caretaker manager at such a crucial time…I was never a big Freddie fan, although I respected the energetic way he played, as he was always a me-first type of player, who for several years cared more about his “modeling” pursuits outside of football…now maybe that gives him a better perspective on how to best relate with the modern day player, but his glaring lack of real experience at this level makes me wonder why the club hierarchy would entrust him with this incredibly problematic task…there is no doubt in my mind that both he and his new assistant would desperately desire the permanent head managerial position and as such it concerns me how this fact will negatively impact their decision-making process…this team is too cheap so I never like giving them the option to make shortsighted frugal decisions, as they have time and time again in the past…there was some indication that the powers that be had been engaged in serious discussions regarding the whole Emery situation for some weeks now, yet when things came to a head they seemed to have no competent answers about how to best move forward…any idiot can simply turn to the second-in-charge and offer them the now vacant role, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s what’s best for the club…of all the former players that have been mentioned regarding the manager’s position, Freddie’s name never came up, which is weird because that list was quite lengthy…as for Per, to me, he represents everything that was wrong with our decision-making process when it came to bringing in central defenders…of course I believe Per to be a fairy cerebral defender throughout his career, but he was always oblivious to his central role in the ultimate demise of our defensive scheme, which concerns me greatly…all we can hope is that Freddie takes a very aggressive stance from a tactical perspective so that we can finally highlight our only real strengths, but if he cares more about pleasing his potential employers upstairs and deploys a more conservative approach we need to get prepared for a disastrous run of games between now and the new year
As far as I know, there hasn’t been a time limit of any kind regarding freddie and per and one would/should assume that our management have been as proactive as the spuds were when discussing the sacking of the present incumbent and who is currently available from their wishlist.
Let’s not forget how successful freddie was with his youngsters and that was why he was promoted to UE’s assistant. He has a no nonsense second in command with per, who once took on Ozil, when he was leaving the pitch without recognising the fans…TBFG will not suffer tempremental players lightly.
Both these men will most certainly have EARNT the respect of our players and I feel they will be desperate to succeed in every area UE failed.
I don’t understand your criticism of per’s understanding of the defensive signings, as I wasn’t aware he had any say in tranfers…and as for his being oblivious to his central role, the man has the medals, titles and accolades to show he knew exactly what defenders should be doing and I ask you to cast your mind back to his last game,the fa cup final, for proof of that.
Let’s wait and see what these two men, who know exactly what The Arsenal Way really means, can achieve – their first game isn’t until tomorrow, let’s give them a chance at least.
Many of these players have now underperformed and let down two well respected head coach/managers in Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery. They shouldn’t be “sad”, but embarrassed.
The Board/Management has made the correct decision in cancelling Emery’s contract; however the players now are in the spotlight and have nowhere to hide.
Good luck to Freddie Ljundberg, but the physical and mental weaknesses, lack of character and poor rofessional attitude still exist in the squad. As well as making the right decision about the next head coach, Arsenal also has to address deficiencies in scouting and recruitment.
I didn’t mean to suggest that Per had any say in our defensive signings, I simply meant that when he was signed it was indicative of how we mismanaged personnel decisions regarding our CB positions…he was sloth-like in his movements and as such left Kos exposed far too often because Kos didn’t trust Per’s ability to track back when we were playing a high line…he was well past his prime when we signed him, which is why he wasn’t even a functional part of the German National team anymore, yet he was constantly chosen as a first team selection under Wenger…meanwhile our executive branch laughed at the notion of paying $10-$12 million for Van Dijk from Celtic…since Per’s signing we have invested in a series of clown-like central defenders of whom none have provided any positive return, minus Holding maybe
Understand what you were saying now Vieria Lyn, sorry I misunderstood on the transfer side of things.
He was constantly chosen to partner Kos and, please, have a look at the stats these two players achieved…they complimented each other, rather than Kos being exposed and played as a partnership at the back.
I agree with your thoughts regarding van dyke, but remember that he signed for Southampton for a reported £13,000,000 in September 2015, when none of the top four seemed prepared to take the risk and sign him on.
When liverpool signed him for £75,000,000 in January 2018, we were being run by the new regime regarding transfers, contracts and salaries and compare that piece of business to our regimes idea of solving the defensive problem left by AW, Luiz for £8,000,000 and sokratis for a reported £17,600,000…while spending a reported £72,000,000 on pepe.
It might just work to our advantage that the per knows what a true CB is worth and get the regime to invest in the achilles heel that has haunted us for years.
No worries…btw those stats were incredibly misleading as we did a fairly decent job of holding substantial possession against most teams, which meant many of our opponents simply parked the bus and looked to counter…I watched every game they played and at no time did I feel that this combination was feared by any of our most worthy adversaries…at that time our biggest issue was our poor record against other top 4 clubs and our failure to advance against other big European clubs in Champions League and his presence on the pitch was a major reason…no speed, below average passer, got lost inside our ridiculous zonal marking scheme during set pieces and had the worst vertical I have ever seen for an individual of his height…those misleading stats allowed us to lower our standards, play Kos regularly for far too long and bring in several CBs whom were ill-equipped to handle the pace of the EPL, such as his fellow countryman Mustafi and the similarly slow-footed Sokratis…once again he was another player with a recognizable name whom we brought in during the twilight of their careers, not the kind of purchase a team with higher aspirations would have made…typical deadline day desperation material