Unai Emery over Mikel Arteta? by Konstantin Mitov
The search for a new manager is the elephant in the room and the favourite to land the job is Mikel Arteta. A name that hardly any Arsenal fan considered. I’ve said numerous times why I believe it’s a bad choice, but if we hire Arteta I will back him. I want this club to go back to winning ways, and it wouldn’t be Mikel’s fault if he is appointed.
The board is playing a deadly game. They made some good moves like Sven, Raul, Fahmy and Auba, but Arteta seems like shooting themselves in the foot. Other names lurk around, but it all feels like we’re putting them just so it doesn’t look like we’re appointing Arteta cause we literally cannot get anybody else.
That said, Guillem Balague reports that a certain Unai Emery is in London to discuss the potential of taking over Arsenal and before we start, ask yourselves which of the 2 managers you’d prefer to take?
I actually like Unai Emery. He won 3 Europa League titles at Sevilla and that alone makes him a good candidate as we will be playing in that tournament again. It’s a backdoor to the champions league and the transfer budget we have will hardly be enough to make a serious top 4 claim, let alone win the league.
The one negative to the spaniard is his failure to deliver in the champions league with the players he was given at PSG, but the situation there is much different. It’s all about being champions of Europe at PSG and even the likes of Ancelotti failed to do it, and I’d have him at Arsenal with open arms! Winning the champions league when you dominate the domestic league is difficult. It means drastically raising your level for one game which is not so easy to do, as our own Europa League struggles have shown.
So apart from that Emery has managerial experience and trophies behind him. He’s managed the likes of Neymar and Cavani and the feuds between them in PSG. Then we do have players like Ozil who need a kick up the backside and guys like Auba with a bad boy reputation. I would trust Unai more than Mikel Arteta to handle such characters due to his experience.
Emery’s work at Sevilla under a limited budget, will again fit in with our philosophy. He’s still only 46 so I think the young factor will also match. If he is in London and he does talk with us, I hope he prepared well and gets under the boards skin. The reason I want a big name manager is it shows ambition and gives a positive vibe to an unstable atmosphere.
The moment Arteta fails to deliver, the angry mob will be pointing a finger at the board. I hope they are not that stupid and we make the right decision.
Appointing Arteta with Emery, Enrique and Ancelotti all available is inexcusable!
Konstantin