Opinion – Player power could be the weapon to turn Arsenal’s season around

If the board will not remove Unai Emery then the players need to have a showdown with the manager.

I recall the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy when England started the campaign off very poorly. Well, apparently the senior players were approached by the late great Sir Bobby Robson about making significant changes.

Maybe, just maybe that is what the senior Arsenal players need to do with Unai Emery but in reverse.

Instead of waiting for the manager to make the required changes, the players should force the issue.

I am not talking about a revolt here or undermining the manager, that would be counterproductive. But if you got a delegation of the most experienced players confronting the manager and telling him the changes they want to see it could be the solution to the current problems.

The players know what they need, they know what makes them better footballers, they know what style is best suited to their game and arguably, right now, Emery does not.

Whether it would work I do not know, maybe Emery is too arrogant, too proud or simply ignorant. I don’t know but I do know that if he ignored a delegation of senior stars then the dressing room would be gone and the club would have no choice then but to sack the Spaniard.

I am not suggesting that the players take over the management of the team and sideline Emery, not at all. I am suggesting that they sit him down, work with him and come to a consensus of the best way forward.

It worked for Bobby Robson in the sense that when it was going wrong the players and manager worked out a solution by talking to each other about how to make the required changes.

Just a suggestion and I accept not everyone will agree with it but something has to be done and player power could be the answer.

17 Comments

  1. Even when the players are powerless,most of them are not of the quality we are clamouring for. Well if it will yield a desirable result, why not, but l have my doubt

  2. taking the Leicester game as an example, I don’t know how much better the tactics could have been suited to any of the players and yet many of them just played like they didn’t want to be there. Much as the manager needs to change, so do the players

    1. My exact point.
      When are these primadonnas going to man up for once?

      Excuses don’t cut it for me. Pepe needs time but how weak, lazy does he look? Weak weak shot. Can’t run up and down his side for 20 minutes without looking like he just finished running a 3 hour marathon.

      Xhaka turns like a tank. Luiz and Sokratis make childlike errors that are costly time after time. Laca aint scoring. Mustafi, what to say? Torreira easily bullied off the ball. The Shirt selling Genius, same old excuses for 6 or so seasons. Only Auba has performed consistently.

  3. Player power?
    These losers for players we have are not innocent here. They are weak, lazy and over paid primadonnas that have not performed for so lomg now.

    When are they going to stand up and put in good performances on the pitch instead of looking for excuses and victimhood.

    We can all blame Emery and the board all ee like but what is stopping these players from giving out their all for our club? All we keep seeing is the same old lethargic/ half ars*d limp performances from them game after game. If the evidence showed that they were giving out their best on the field then I would understand this player power thing. But they are weak as hell, full of excuses.

    There overpaid fat cats that are in their comfort zone.
    Had enough of it.

  4. Joe, but isn’t that what UE is being paid a reported £6,000,000 a year for?

    If the tactics ARE right, but the players aren’t interested…then drop those that aren’t performing.

    He did it, supposedly, when proving how good a coach he was with regard to confronting Ozil, so what is the problem with the others who are underperforming?

    1. The problem is Ken, who does Emery replace them with. The squad quality in key positions, such as defensive midfield and centre back is underwhelming.
      I believe the use of “confront” the coach by Admin Martin is too strong a word. Confrontation will only make matters worse; however I see no problem with senior players seeking a meeting with Emery, Ljundberg and his assistants (or Emery arranging such a meeting) to discuss the disappointing performance of the team.
      After all football is a team game and the lack of performances by individual players is just as important as the coach. If the coach isn’t getting his message across, the senior players should take this up with him.

  5. I thought player power was the reason Emery lost his job at PSG………………..so yes on them grounds make it as quick as this ebening !

  6. Emery is used to be the underdog almost all his career as a manager until he went to psg,he is treating all the teams as if they were all above and better than us, All I can think of is he has to grow some balls if at all he has any and by now he should have shown them….. I’m afraid he is a dead end

  7. the old dog always barks on behalf of his master. even though his master is long gone, the dog still takes every opportunity to bark and bark. but i`doubt at this point that the old dog actually knows what he is barking about.we had an old dog in our street when i was growing up, he was so loud and huge, bruce was his name. he loved giving it , but he could never take it , strangely.there is blind faith , and, then there is bitterness, bitterness because his old master was asked to move along now .but the dog has never changed his tune, commendable , i guess, in some peoples eyes. can never teach an old dog new tricks , ruff ruff.

  8. The general theme on this site is, that the most of the players are not Arsenal standard.Judged against what yardstick I am curious to understand, the Invincible’s or other teams players or what.
    If the players are not good enough then it is totally unrealistic to expect to reach top four or win in Europe. It also seems to me, based on the view that our players are just not good enough, no manager would be able to achieve enough to satisfy some supporters.

  9. Don’t think it would work, emery seems mentally frail and would immediately take it as disrespect, like he did at psg when his tactics weren’t working and the players wanted to play to their strengths. He ended up being just a passenger while the players did what they wanted anyway and blamed the highest profile one saying he’s the manager at psg and not him lol

  10. How can you say our players are nt good enough,auba won golden Boot last season and he’s got 8 frm 12 matches this season,we all knw what laca is capable of he’s our best player last season and he also start well this season but lost his form to recent injury,Leno is a good keeper consider he’s currently at the top of the list of most Saves,with kt and bellerin in full Fitness they are good full backs,Bellerin is a proven and kt on the other hand is also top class,base on his experience plus he was once a leader at celtic,david Luis is a top class and played well till his last day before coming to Arsenal so i Guess story changes when we sign HIM.LT is good at least before he was started playing out of position, if you expect mateo to do more than he’s doing right now then you are wicked,pepe i cant say much about him but his 5 goals frm last 11 for ivory coast is not bad and 22 league goals from a winger in ligue 1 last season is not that cheap,emery 18 months still no starting 11 or regular formation

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