Reading through Arsenal fans discussing who should be our next coach, made me think about an analogy from the Music world. There’s a world famous fly on the wall audio recording of The Troggs (Wild Thing, Love Is All Around) where the band are in the studio without a producer and, in short, it turns into an utter fiasco.
In simple terms the session isn’t going well. Hot on the heels of their massive hit ‘Wild Thing’ they decide to manage their own recording session minus a producer and, unsurprisingly, it ends in disaster. Why? Well, you’d assume the people in the band would know a fair bit about how music gets put together right? Just like people who watch football know the basics of how it works….
It’s such a deluded event it reminds me so much of how people seem to write articles on this site about who might possibly supersede Unai Emery. The truth is you can’t offer an informed opinion on a subject that you have restricted knowledge about (like The Troggs).
We all know there’s huge problems at our club but, in truth, only the people in the inner sanctum know what those problems are caused by. Fans seems always to either blame the manager of the chairman as they are single figures and far easier to focus the blame on, rather than specifically three or four players in the team.
Bill Shankly once said ‘football is a simple game complicated by idiots’……Fans are the idiots in this example. They seem to over-complicate the obvious by assuming the issue is simple. The problem here is they find the answer in such a vast amount of answers that it then blurs what the problem actually is. Unai Emery is a good manager, as was Arsene Wenger, as was Antonio Conte, as was Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool……the list is endless.
The biggest problem is Arsenal fans demanding instant gratification. It’s literally like a small child screaming because his parent won’t succumb to his unreasonable demands. Emery is far from perfect but neither was Ferguson when he started at Man United. It’s not only Arsenal fans who have too much to say, it’s fans of most clubs. The assumption that they know more than the people paid to manage because they have been fans for their entire life is laughable. Loyalty doesn’t qualify fans to have their opinions qualified.
I’ve read so much about ‘all the managers that might be better than Emery’ and, in short, they’re opinions of the ill-informed.
Maybe the necessity to discuss on Arsenal fans’ websites like this creates pointless opinions that nobody of significance within the club gives a monkeys about. It just dilutes the real issues.
Matty Barnes
Lol
Yes, big lols as I’m still not sure what Matty’s point is as without opinions any football site like this wouldn’t exist. I find it rather funny that he slags everyone off for their opinions while spouting his own. But hypocritical eh! I wonder what AdMart and Dan will answer his criticism with?
I guess the board would wait till we get two more defeats
I hope it wouldn’t be too late after that, because we only have 13 home games and 4 of them are big games
employee are given a target by the management….and if the employee does not hit his kpis or target, he will be fired
the same goes for Emery….
A club do not sack a manager because he lost 3 or 4 games or play boring football
Emery has been given his target and if he doesnt achieve it…he will be replaced
This is not Fifa20….fans do not decide
Tell that to Bayern.
Of course John
I just wanted to point out that Arsenal will be in great danger if they lose one of the easy 9 home games, so I hope the board know what they’re doing
the board knows what they are doing…
fans should let the manager and players focus on their job….
if we keep losing, say at least the next 2 games,
the board will definitely take action….
I said at the start EMERY needs time there is no magic wand look back when Sir Matt Busby took a lot of young players and stuck with them when they were in the second division and they became the Busby Babes a truly wonderful football team that was cut short by the terrible accident. The moral of this story it takes TIME to build a team give EMERY time
and you think your opinion about the opinions of the fans are a smart talk innit?
why is it that people try their hardest to drag every other person to their mediocre level. Coz you dont know dont mean everybody also dont and hey Emery is not a good coach.
Klopp also didnt start with fireworks but you could SEE they were going somewhere, have an identity and the coach have the respect of the players, few among many things we cant boast of.
It was easy to support Emery when we had nothing to compare him against. However, Lampard and Brenda have just come in and transformed their teams. We can’t ignore that.
Exactly and lampard had to do it with academy kids and here we have had to shell out more money to get this coach what he wants, last season the excuse was that he didnt have good players. Lampard current success blows that logic out of the waters
“The biggest problem is Arsenal fans demanding instant gratification. It’s literally like a small child screaming because his parent won’t succumb to his unreasonable demands. Emery is far from perfect but neither was Ferguson when he started at Man United.”
I agree but waiting 15 years to come close to a PL title and watching Leicester City winning. watching Chelsea and Liverpool win Champions League and watching Spurs go ahead of us is very difficult pill to swallow
at this stage the fans and the media are causing alot of disruption and abuse to the players and manager…
let Emery and the players focus and do their job…
if the results are not positive, Emery will definitely be replaced
we should not be hopping for the club to lose games for Emery to be sacked
Has he been given a month though or is this something else the media have engineered,I hope not and I hope he gets the chop in January but I am sceptical of where this target came from.
whether it is a month or two…..
if we keep losing say next 3 straight games, Emery will be gone…
we should not hope for the club to lose so that Emery be sacked
Emery will go at end of season.
We will finish outside the top 4.
Kroenke will say he is disappointed and we need to do better. The self sustaining business model will roll on.
Every business needs to be self-sustaining mate.
Thanks for that. I know, I have one;) although I will plug my own money into it if it needs it.
That’s how you grow if your performance needs to improve or resources need procuring to keep up with your market competitors.
Being Arsenal fans doesn’t make me/us idiots Matty Barnes. I think Bill Shankly was wrong to have termed football fans this manner. For his assessment of football fans as idiots because he was a successful manager at Liverpool doesn’t fit the preposition nor the bill. I am sure if he was still living, he would retract that his pathetic statement and tender apology to football fans unreservedly.
Anyway, Arsenal fans who help pay the club’s bill to a very large extent have every right to demand value for their money. Can Arsenal FC afford to play their home matches in the PL in empty Emirates Stadium devoid of fans? I don’t think the club will go this far to prove Bill Shankly was correct. The football clubs need their fans to survive and the football fans need their football clubs to quench their insatiable passion urge that has become imbedded in them overtime.
After the international break Arsenal will be at home to Southampton and at away to Norwhich City who are all relegation threatened at this stage into the season. And they’ll travel to the London Stadium to play against the West Hammers. After hosting 8righton & HA to welcome Iwobi as he return to the Emirates Stadium for the first time after he joined Everton last summer window.
On paper all these 4 PL matches are looking winnable for Arsenal. But in reality they are not going to be the easy games for Arsenal to win that us think they should be. But if Arsenal win all these 4 PL matches in a row which they should, they can use the run to be confident in their next games to win them haven gathered 4 games winning run momentum.
Therefore, the ball is in Emery and the Gunners court to bail themselves out of the Gooners criticism and revolt jail that they’ve seemingly found themselves in at the club now.
I’ve been saying this the whole time, no chance the board gonna appoint someone midway throughout the season. Arsenal is business first and it is common to wait until the end of the year (season) before making performance appraisal. That is, unless we suddenly fight a relegation battle which is unlikely IMO given the quality of the squad. So as long as Emery appears to be trying, the board will keep him.
This is a fantastic article. Very well put together. It’s reasonable and logical in how much it makes sense. A breath of fresh air. I think the treatment of Emery is absolutely disgraceful to the point where I have temporarily disassociated myself with following Arsenal. I can’t stomach the fans and ex players demanding to have this man sacked during the “time period” that most fans said they would give him. As the article rightfully explains, it is to simple in the minds of fans on how to solve the issues. No one remarks that, if another manager had taken over, we might be 15th in the league now. The arrogance of fans means they are annoyed that Emery isn’t doing what they claim to know would make us challenge for the title. I don’t know if emery will work out or not, but it’s a transition period at present and I give him longer than 1 and a quarter season to see if he can bring us back to our best.
You make some good points. However, for me the main point is, does Emery have the full support of the players?
Recent performances suggest that not being the case and if it continues the manager will be the one to fall.
It does seem unfair but that is what always happens. The players, although equally to blame for the poor performances, just wait for a new manager.
Nonsense Scott. Do you not see how this article insults our fanbase en masse too? We may not know exactly when Emery is sacked but only complete idiots, which WE are not, can’t see that he is in deep trouble, with a worried and concerned board, who will be BOUND to take due note – and soon too- of the overwhelming call of fans for his early exit. Not to mention our beyond remote hope of a top four finish. This article is insulting; it is anti our fans and needs calling out, not praising it,as you have foolishly done, for its wrong conclusions. Even a blind person can easily see that the players are puzzled by and not busting a gut for this manager . And no wonder either. Rethink your opinion Scott! FANS ARE NOT ARROGANT; THEY ARE CONCERNED, BECAUSE THEY ALL LOVE ARSENAL . PITY OUR OWNER DOESNT TOO. He only loves his investment! Ugh!
As to any other manager making us 15th; who have you in mind? Jeremy Corbyn perhaps!
They wrote something up last season to see if the clubs need the fans ticket money to make a profit and keep things running. It turned out they didn’t, the tv rights and advertising is where most of it came from. I think it was esp written because of ticket prices getting more expensive. Every PL club was able to stay afloat and with some it was barely a dint. Still, the tv rights and advertising money wouldn’t come in without fans, the ones at home watching games, those are who the adverts are aimed at as well as match going fans. Also the tv rights, fans are paying for the cable just to see football and movies, so maybe the piece was written up for no reason as you need the fans for any of it.
I can’t really argue with the article, nor with Shankley. As a fan I know how underprepared I am …if say, decisions fell on me to make. I have my likes and my dislikes, same as every fan.
WHAT A ONE SIDE ONE EYED ARTICLE THAT INSULTS US FANS EN MASSE. Thr writer knows no more about how ALL fans think than he claims ANY of us know about how the board are thinking. It is obvious that the board are worried about how Emery is doing; a blind person can tell that. To make mass observations that we are all, in effect, completely out of touch and know nothing is insulting to put it mildly. I dislike the entire tone and conclusion of this rather silly article. We knowwhat is wrong and most have a good idea that this daft manager needs removing NOW. That is more than the club know, considering they are stupidly allowing him to remain . For the time being. Not much longer than that though , in my view!
Scott, so as a supporter of the club, what do you suggest I do when I turn up at the Emiratesto watch my team play?
A team that has over £215,000,000 invested in it during the summer trandfer window.
A team that has seen 21 players leave the club.
A team that has seen two loanees signed, both injured and played less than three games.
A team that has a goal difference of -1 and yet signed a forward for £72,000,000.
A team that has got 2 points from its last 12 and 1 from its last 18 the previous season.
A team that has no tactics, except passing out from the back in order to concede goals.
A team that has seen changes in its personnel at evey single game this season.
A team that has seen its captain admit it was scared of Watford.
A team that has been humiliated in a european cup final by its neighbours.
A team that has surrended the lead more times than any other top six clubs this season.
A team that has no direction, no class, no leaders, no future that can be identified.
A team that has been playing current and former international players out of position.
A team that has players openly criticising the way the club is being coached.
Now thats a few pointers to be getting on with, meanwhile I openly admit I am one of those fans who was ready to give him time to improve the team – and therein lies the problem.
We have been going backwards since he arrived, please tell me of just ONE area that you feel he has shown the fans he has done that?
How long do you suggest we give him before we see any improvement, say in team morale – or defence – or selection of players in round holes – or tactics?
If you could identify ANYWHERE OR ANYTHING that has given us, the foolish fans, reason to be optimistic and put our faith in this coach and you will see a change in the atmosphere.
Until then, your temporary dislocation from the fanbase is appreciated.