Thierry Henry says Arsenal did not give Unai Emery enough time

(Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Thierry Henry believes that Arsenal should have given Unai Emery more time as their manager, especially as the Spaniard continues to impress with his work at Aston Villa.

Emery took over from Arsène Wenger at the Emirates and guided Arsenal to the Europa League final in 2019, a notable achievement in his first season. While Arsenal did not win the competition, reaching the final was seen as a strong start to his tenure. However, Emery struggled to establish control over the squad, and inconsistent results led to his dismissal midway through the 2019/2020 season. He was subsequently replaced by Mikel Arteta.

Since Arteta’s appointment, Arsenal has made significant progress. Arteta has taken bold decisions regarding players and has transformed the culture at the club, turning them into serious contenders for major honours. The team today is notably stronger than the one Arteta inherited.

Despite this, Henry believes that with more time, Emery could have done well at Arsenal. He suggests that Emery’s recent success at Aston Villa, where he has built a competitive and dynamic side, indicates that he had the potential to succeed at Arsenal if given more time.

He said, as quoted by the Daily Mail:

 ‘He’s a tactical genius. He always goes out there and makes sure that his team has an advantage tactically because that’s how he operates. 

‘We all know what he did in Spain [winning the Europa League four times with Sevilla and Villarreal]. It’s no disrespect to what Mikel Arteta is doing and he’s doing extremely well for Arsenal, but I just thought that if we kept him a bit longer he would have been a success at Arsenal.

‘He did show it straight after when he left the club. I have massive respect for him.’

Just Arsenal Opinion

Emery is undoubtedly a good manager, but losing the Emirates dressing room meant we had to replace him.


ADMIN COMMENT

So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….

You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.


CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link

Tags Thierry Henry Unai Emery

49 Comments

  1. That’s as maybe
    Many contributors on JA considered we bottled it 2 years ago, so I’m interested to know what the general consensus is regarding ‘bottling’ 4th and then losing in Baku to Chelsea who had already qualified for the CL

    Emery came to Arsenal with a decent record – especially in Europe. AW hadn’t left us in a dire situation and it was therefore, expected (?) that a new broom – previously at PSG – and a serial Europa League winner could pop us back into 4th place and we’d be off and running again.

    What happened after was horrible to watch and worryingly difficult for Emery to manage

    I think Henry didn’t need to make those remarks. It looks like being clever after the event. Just because Emery is doing well at Villa now there is no reason to think that he could have eventually won over the dressing room or the survived calls for his sacking at Arsenal.

    1. He’s clearly a very good manager – I don’t think the issue was the time he was given, it was the lack of support from those above. It all changed after he left, and if they’d believed in him and supported him as they did with arteta, I don’t doubt he’d have been at least fairly successful. Just bad timing for emery imo but it’s history now and things have since worked out better for him and for arsenal. As good as he is, I’d still rather have arteta, who I think is more ruthless when he needs to be.

      1. Davi
        My feelings are that in Emery’s full season it had nothing to do with lack of support. We were well on target to finish 4th with a few matches remaining and blew it – with a squad of experienced players, followed by embarrassment in a European final which, after all was his forte. He led the team for quite some while on an unbeaten run so I’m not having it that he lacked support then. Highly likely in season two because what was in offer was dire and the higher management structure was decidedly iffy. I presume that’s what you meant. However, season one came crashing down on the pitch and he had to take responsibility for that

        Yes, Arteta was the beneficiary of Emery’s demise. The top brass took a more hands on approach and realised that the likes of Sanhelli’s employment was damaging and remedied it by bringing on board ‘Arsenal’ men to the top tier

  2. The big difference is EDU. Emery took over a toxic dressing room.
    Arteta came in with the backing of a sporting director who recognised the toxicity of the senior players.
    Remember Ozil and the others at the laughing gas and champagne party?

  3. Shudda, wudda, coulda?? its all blah, blah blah speculation after the fact. What’s important is what’s happening in the here and now where in Arteta’s time and it’s looking like he’s about to distinguish himself even among all the current premiership managers and i can’t wait to see his and our teams success. I’m convinced all the naysayers will see MA management crystallize into years of success and i expect the biggest footballing trophies on offer will be ours under his tenure. Mikel is a Wenger, a Guardiola and a Moyes prodigy which is a recipe for success imo
    It takes big cahoonas to take-onboard arsenal fc in the way Mikel has done when clearly he was doing ok for hiself as Guadiola’s number 2. Emery is good and maybe he’ll win something but Arteta.is a nailed on certainty to win the biggest honors – simple as that.

  4. I see Henry gets it. I also feel that he should have been given more time as well as better support and trust. He was never seen as a manager, only a coach, who had zero input on his squad. From acquisition of players he wanted to the ability to get rid of the toxic players who helped get him sacked. He never lost to locker room, he never had it. Those toxic players knew his standing at the club and used it against him. Then came the disrespect of some fans in the same manner they used against AW before him.
    There is no doubt in my mind, that had he been given the same trust, respect and support as Arteta has, AFC would have won the league a couple years back when we were buying and trying players attempting to get it right…Just saying ✌🏾

  5. Arteta was the coach for 8/9 months and had Mari and Soares foisted upon him. January loan signings that Sanhelli gave long contracts to at the end of the season and neither were remotely good enough to be part of rebuilding the club Like Emery, he had no say. Arteta also bore the brunt of unpleasant name calling. Pep’s water boy, Lego head etc Neither pleasant for him or for Emery who was mocked for his accent.

    I heartily agree that Emery is a very good manager but not at Arsenal. And in my honest opinion he would not have had us winning the league within 2 years because it wasn’t working. How do you explain going on an unbeaten 22 game run but then getting 4 points from our last 5 league games?

  6. In my opinion only the decision makers and possibly those close to them know the true reason/s for his dismissal.

    Going on what we kmow is that Unai Emery accepted the chance to return to England and Emery took it.

    I respect him for this that he we prepared to try again. I think it shows him to be a man of personal strength. This is worthy of everyone’s respect.
    I wish him well, but not well enough to beat Arsenal.

  7. Emery seems like the Manager a club would go for when you want to punch above your weight. A club has players that are good and average but are not performing well, low in confidence, or something, Emery can get there and sort them out and firing above what everyone thought possible. That’s Emery’s thing. But managing players that are already excellent, Emery isn’t that type. He succeeds at the clubs that are not horribly bad (considering the players they have got), and not amazingly good. Emery likes that sweet spot it seems and succeeds there superbly.

      1. And yet he was sacked by PSG. Why do you think that happened? Give me your honest opinion.

        By the way,Emery is a good manager but come on,anyone would have won those trophies with the squad they had relative to the other teams. They had virtually no competition in that league.

        1. Because they want champions league which has eluded every great manager and players that have tried it at PSG

        2. @Onyango
          Had you been paying attention, you might have recognised that I was was responding to Daulats assumption that Emery can’t manage big players. And as everyone knows, Emery was sacked from PSG because he win the CL…

      2. It’s about what the club wants.

        If the club wants to win the champions league and every other major honors and has the right squad full of talents and stars to do it, Emery isn’t the guy. He is too pragmatic for that, and asking the stars to play with every minute details laid out to them doesn’t work with such “Star players”.

        If the club wants champions league football but has the squad that needs to punch above its weight to reach there, Emery is THE guy. He might take that team to the finals. He is the savior of the underdogs.

  8. Nobody can argue that Emery hasn’t done a great job at Villa. When he arrived, they were, I think, three points above the relegation zone, now they’re in the top group in the EPL and doing well in Europe. Their win against a very good Bayern side (undefeated, apparently, at this stage of the CL since 2016) was the best in my opinion of any EPL team in the recent round of CL games.

    Of course, we’ll never know what Emery could have done at Arsenal had he stayed. Perhaps he still wouldn’t have been a success or, possibly, with more time he would have turned things around. It’s horses for courses, and he seems to have found his “right place” now at Villa, so I wish him well (although not when playing Arsenal).

  9. If they kept him and gave him support they gave Arteta we would have already won the EPL and CL by now.

    As good as Arteta has proved to be, he is still a true checkbook manager. If he was the manager of a club like Villa when Emery joined them, he would have guided them to the 2nd division by now.

    It has worked well for both sides but still Emery is at least three levels above Arteta in tactical genius.

    What Emery has done with Villa is worth more than Man city treble or any league title. He didn’t buy that success like City always do or Arsenal are trying to do. He made it himself.

      1. That’s a very good question adewale!!
        We’re always being told that MA hasn’t won anything, well neither has UE!!
        I do believe that the club acted to hastily, along with the majority of supporters, but it’s my view that UE had lost the dressing room after our European Cup final defeat to chelsea.
        He’s doing a great job at villa and, surely, there can’t be any animosity towards him?
        MA came in and did it his way and the rest is history as they say.

        1. Emery has more trophies than Arteta the last time I checked.

          But if you’re referring to their trophy cabinets as Arsenal managers, then Arteta has more trophies

          1. I’m referring to the PL and domestic cups, as that is where MA and UE ply their trade at this present moment.
            What UE did previously has no bearing on what the article and TH was about, along with their time as managers – MA hasn’t won anything sincerely becoming The Arsenal manager and neither has UE since becoming villa manager.
            SIGH!!

      2. Success is not only winning trophies. Top 4 and being above Arsenal in CL league is a success for a club like Villa while a club of Arsenal status anything less than trophies is not a success.

        And if we are to talk about trophies I think Emery has a cabinet full of them while Arteta has one only, with superior spending and authority.

      1. Please see my post below Chronicle. Emery has been well supported by Villa. He also had give or take a million, £200m worth of players- from Arsenal all of which could not have been the likes of Pepe. Guendouzi, Torreira. Saliba, Tierney, Leno, Sokratis and Martinelli
        All of this was available to read on Transfermarkt

  10. Losing the Arsenal dressing room was the key. It was a great pity after Emery had produced such good results before.
    It was caused by certain ‘mature’ players making life very difficult when they were losing their place in the team. Not long after Arteta & Edu arrived they had to sort this by agreeing to terminate the contract of two central defenders – thus making them free agents.

    1. @chris
      He never lost the dressing room. He never had it. The very same toxic players that Arteta had to get rid of, were just as toxic, maybe even more so under Emery…

  11. Personally,I think Emery lost the dressing room and once that happens,the board is left with no choice but to sack the manager. There are many instances these days of players simply ‘downing their tools’ and instigating the departure of their coach.Likely the same thing happened to Emery at PSG. Once this happens,there’s no way back because it’s easier to get rid of the coach than the players.

    The difference with Arteta is that even when the results were bad,the players he had still seemed to want to fight for him. There was unity in the dressing room. Perharps it helped that they gradually got rid of the bad apples and created a healthier culture. Emery is a fine tactician-one of the best in the league. But he is yet to prove he can handle the big players. These players got rid of him. That’s my theory anyway.

    1. @Onyango
      And yet, those very same players who you claim still wanted to fight for Arteta, were considered so toxic to the dressing room that Arteta had to get rid of them. You cant have it both ways. So, which is it? 🤔

      1. No,not those very same players.I’m talking about those that remained after the purge of the bad apples.I’m talking about one of our worst runs under Arteta which was in late 2021. Despite that terrible run,there were no signs Arteta had lost the dressing room. I remember ESR coming into the team and we kicked on from there.

        No matter how good a coach is with tactics,if they can’t manage a dressing room with all the egos in it,they’ll get sacked.

        1. Do you mean the 12 PL unbeaten run that featured players he then decided to let go after the coronavirus break Onyango, as I’m a little confused?

    2. Onyango you are contradicting yourself, something which always happen when one is biased.

      You say it’s easier to get rid of the coach than toxic players and with the same breath you are saying it helped Arteta that they got rid of toxic players.

      Why was it difficult to get rid of them under Emery but easy under Arteta? After all they were same players.

  12. Emery is a very good manager; proved it in Spanish league with 2 teams and with Villa in PL.

    I mention those 3 because he didn’t rely mostly on a check book to succeed!

    How many managers can do that without constantly running to the owners wallet?

    Arteta has been great for us, but he got endless patience, control of the roster, and hand picked an 800 million pound roster.

    What if Emery received that support? Could Arteta have been successful at Villa without spending hundreds of millions?

    Interesting debate, but we will never know. Both managers are in great situations for them personally.

    Interesting though comparing how one was completely supported, while one was a caretaker / scapegoat during his tenure.

  13. Really interesting debate. Nobody doubts that Emery is an excellent manager, but football is littered with managers succeeding at some clubs but failing at others for varying reasons.
    Certainly Arteta has been given more time and freedom than his predecessor, plus a better senior management team, but he too did not inherit a healthy team or club if we cast our minds back.
    I have no doubt that Arsenal would have also improved under Emery, but to what level? Personally I see Emery as a genuis at making “a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”, but see his potential plateau as being somewhat lower than that of Arteta. As has been stated by others, the jury is still out on Emery’s ability to man-manage the very best players. Much is made of him succeeding on relatively low budgets – but I see that as being an irrelevant argument, as Arsenal are NOT a low budget club.
    Good luck to Unai, but I am happy with what we have!

    1. @guy
      Once more with feeling. 7 trophies in 2 seasons at PSG proves he can man manage the best players. And what top players has Arteta managed? Just askin…🤔

      1. He was 2 years at PSG, during which time he signed the two most expensive players in history (by a country mile) for almost £400m in Neymar and Mbappe, as well as 10 others. He didnt win the league in his first season, despite PSG having won Ligue 1 in the four years before he joined. And with respect, winning French domestic trophies (but failing in Europe) with arguably two of the world’s four best players does not make you a great man-manager. I would argue that even you or I would be in with a shot at achieving that! Not in any way a criticism of Unai who I really like though – Just rebutting…

  14. Seriously this is a dead debate but for those calling arteta a cheque book manager try finding out how much Emery has spent has Villa’s manager

      1. Correct SueP. Also people bigging up Emery for winning 7 trophies at PSG would more than likely dismiss 4 of those trophies ( 2 League Cups and 2 Super Cups, which is our equivalent of the Community Shield) if Mikel won them.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors