There is a massive lack of discipline at Arsenal and Unai Emery has to get it under control.
Over the last few months, I have witnessed a significant lack of discipline involving Arsenal players and it appears to me that it is almost out of control.
I am not going to analyse every single incident but a simple summary clearly shows there is a problem.
You have a senior player telling the coach to his face he is no coach. Another senior player liking social media posts calling for the manager to be sacked. That same player defiantly and publicly saying he will continue a relationship with an abusive so-called massive Arsenal fan channel calling for his teammates to F off and to leave the club.
A captain that tells the fans to F off and then sending cryptic messages to the Arsenal fans when on international duty.
I could go on and in some of these examples, we are talking more than one player. Some of these incidents was covered in this article.
How the hell has this been allowed to happen?
I do not recall this happening even in the darkest days of Arsene Wenger, certainly not to this extent.
Did Sir Alex Ferguson allow this culture to exist at Man Utd? Nope, he soon slung those players out of the club and we are talking huge stars.
Would the likes of Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola allow such a culture to take root?
There are examples when it has got out of hand, Jose Mourinho at Chelsea but even then it was done behind closed doors and not in public.
Massive fines, being dropped, being sold and so on are all weapons available to Emery to enforce discipline, So why is he not doing anything?
Lack of discipline will undermine any manager, it is like a disease that if not contained will soon spread.
I do not want to see the big players dropped or sold but Arsenal is far bigger than any of them can ever dream to be and if necessary, the full weight of sanctions must be applied.
This is just one example of what Emery can do to start steadying the ship because as things stand right now, the players just do not respect him. Not in my opinion anyway.