Just some days ago, almost all the sport websites carried a story about Emery. Emery according to them spoke about his time at Arsenal and why he failed. I love it when a man tries to defend his actions or inactions, but I love it better when the man just keeps quiet and allow events to flow. You don’t really need to start explaining every action you take, especially when the explanations are not needed.
According to the daily Mail, Emery has come out to explain why things didn’t go well for him at Arsenal. This is what our former coach said.
“This second year, we have not played well; we have not defended well. We have not been competitive; we did not transmit. And I told the players myself…There were several problems: four captains; the Ozil-Kolasinac case; Pepe’s signing, who needs time since he came from France… We didn’t play well, that’s for sure…That brought us bad results, there was no improvement, the fans focused on me and they threw me out. But I keep the positive things, there were many.” he said.
I feel for Emery but most of all the things he highlighted were either caused by him or by nature. The issue of four different captains was caused by him. I don’t know where he got the concept of choosing more than one captain from, but the concept is shrewd and weird. When a team has several captains, loyalty among players will be divided! Emery being a world class coach should have known this better but then, he has the right to experiment new things, doesn’t he?
The Ozil-Kolasinac case was an unfortunate one. Nobody likes to be mugged; nobody likes to be robbed. I had a bitter robbery case and for weeks, I found it difficult shutting out terrible memories from my head, but then I finally healed! It was not Emery’s fault that they were robbed, but it was his fault that they never healed completely. A coach these days, also double as managers, they also doubled as motivational speakers. If Emery felt they were not fully over the traumatic experience, then he could have done whatever he could to help them heal. Nothing more to say about this.
Now to the issue of Pepe not clicking; I want to ask, who really asked for him to be signed? Emery or who? If it was Emery that asked, then it is only natural to think Emery would have planned on what to do with him and how to help him acclimatize better. No excuse here sir.
I don’t want to been seen as crucifying the great coach; what I just did was to analyze his response. However, I still maintain that Emery would have just kept quiet and move on with his life. We are Arsenal and we are proud.
Sylvester Kwentua