What Has to Happen Before the Board Sack Coach Emery? by Larry Dunlop
Greetings to my beloved Arsenal Fans again. First and foremost is that I want to say that we are all hoping for the football club to be successful once again. Under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal finished in the top four of the Premier League every year for 20 consecutive years, a “bare minimum” to us Gunner fans.
The reshuffled management team finally changed Coach after 22 years and hired the Spanish Coach, Unai Emery, prior to last season. His credentials impressed the Board most over some of the other candidates considered at that time. (Three Europa League titles while Coach at Sevilla). In his debut PL season, Coach Emery directed the team to a fifth-place finish and a spot in the Europa League final vs Chelsea.
After only eleven league games to this season, I have experienced a wide range of emotions. Mostly bitter emotions directed towards Coach Emery and now the Board.
A quick summary after 11 league games: last season – Arsenal earned 23 points and GD +11, we scored 25 goals and conceded 14, stood in 5th place one point behind 4th. This season – Arsenal have 17 points and GD +1, we’ve scored 16 goals and have conceded 15, stand in 5th place but six points off 4th.
Most of us will agree that the summer transfer window was “unexpectedly” favourable overall. We had “hints” of a slight improvement in our defence and much anticipation with the added “firepower” to our attack. (i.e. Pepe signing).
What has happened with our team so far this season my beloved family of Arsenal supporters?
Who is to blame? The Coach? The Players? The Board? Who?
I ask myself the very same questions…
With all my “pent-up” frustrations to this new season I decided to look at the overall picture at Arsenal. This is my theory and some of you may agree and some of you may not…….
The Board will fail to sack Coach Emery anytime soon unless the team goes on a consistent losing streak. Here is why: THEY ARE NOT TRULY INTERESTED IN FOOTBALL JUST THE ARSENAL BRAND
The club’s billionaire owner Mr. Kroenke owns several other major sports franchises in the USA including NFL – Los Angeles Rams and the new LA stadium due to open in 2020.
He simply purchased a “well established” Arsenal FC and BRAND with supporters worldwide and the club worth over 2 billion pounds.
His Board of Directors are all senior statesmen and ex-businessmen with an average age of 73 years old (the zeal is gone) if you leave out Kroenke’s son Josh who is 39. Josh already has his hands full being the President of two of his family-owned major sports teams in the USA. (no time for Arsenal)
Mr. Vinai Venkatesham is Arsenal’s current Managing Director but I find no prior evidence of SPORTS in his DNA just a business background.
The Head of Football, Mr. Raul Sanllehi was the former Director of Football at Barcelona in years past, but has since stepped in the position of the former CEO Mr. Ivan Gazidis.
Most of us should know by now that our team has regressed under Coach Emery this season.
ESPN FC TV Sports commentators/analysts Stevie Nicholl, Stewart Robson and Frank LeBeouf all agree to that very same point….
With the current organizational structure, the background and duties of Board members, I envisage Coach Emery will continue with his duties indefinitely.
Can anyone really see them sack coach Emery at the moment?
Larry J Dunlop
Money has been spent. Board cannot be blamed (after hiring Emery). Team has been strengthened. We have promising youngsters to support our senior squad.
What hasn’t changed? Management. Emery doesn’t know what he’s doing, way out of his league. I don’t think players respect him or even know how to play under his guidance.
Get rid or risk of losing 60m CL money. Simple as that. We have no philosophy, we have no results.
Money has been spend and team has been strengthened
but the team needs time to adapt and gel
we do not even have the minimum core/spine of 5 or 6 players in the first team
how many players in the first 11 have played together for at least 2 season?
This is not fifa20, players need time
I blame the board for not spending more on a better manager.
I support Emery but I never wanted him before we got him. I was openly calling for Allegri
Now IF the board sack Emery they need to get a top manager who has won a Top League ie PL, Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga and/or Champions league. My choices Allegri, Sarri, Ancelloti, Enrique, Simione
Simeone? Simeone is a disgrace to the sport of football. The fact that he has won trophies using his methods is an insult to everyone who loves the game.
Thank you QD, at least someone follows La Liga closely. Simeone will do any dirty thing for his team to win. He’s the coaching equivalent of Diego Costa or Luis Suarez. Douchebag supreme.
He’s actually worse than Mourinho. His cult mentality in the club would also never ever work at Arsenal or most other clubs. On top of that they’re the most boring top team in world football. This year they scored 12 goals in 12 matches. In La Liga. Which for me equates to about 9 or 10 goals scored in 12 matches in EPL. No wonder they have 6 draws in 12 matches. It’s hard winning 1-0 all the time even if you have Oblak, arguably world’s best keeper (alongside Ter Stegen).
The boards have injected funds as Mclovin said, they have done their own part, the rest is left to Emery and the players, one way or the other he should get a new he best out of the players, but he has fail to do so, he’s unfit for the job, what else the boards are waiting for to get him sack, they are jeopardizing the chance of making top four with Emery still our head coach. Get him sack soon or we keep waiting for champion’s league football.
Boy oh boy, we’re definitely sacking Dracula after next EPL match if there any sense in the kroenkes head. Even with Arsene wenger, in his last season the toxicity didn’t reach this level of civil war between fans and captain we witnessed. Fans were calling for wengers head but they were not booing the players. We lost away games and big games but I can’t remember that squad letting 2 goals leads slip or conceding over 20 shots in consecutive games. Ibelieved we’ve stepped down since then despite the obvious improvements in the quality of squad. Count Dracula done suck the blood out of our beloved Arsenal. We replaced an outdated one with a clueless one. Board should swallow their pride and send him packing on a chartered train straight back to Romania. It would actually be an upset for Leicester if we were able to get a draw
How do you expect the so called gelling when Emery can’t play a first 11 for at least two consecutive games?
Of course the board is waiting for the Leicester result. If we lose we will be 9 points adrift the top 4 (assuming Chelsea beat Palace too) and the board will be under pressure to take drastic measures to resurrect our hopes of making the champions league next season. Already we are seeing empty seats at the Emirates and things aren’t even that bad.
If Emery gets the result we will only be 3 points behind top 4, and probably still group leaders in Europa. No way Emery will get the sack if we beat Leicester. However, Emery has hardly picked up maximum points away this season. Eddie, Sue, Pat, you can put the champagne on ice.
There is blame to be apportioned to most at the club, and those that have also left.
Wenger and Gazidis left the club in a mess, which I always felt would take years to sort out. Which is exactly what is happening. Kroenke’s hands off approach, let this get out of control.
A lot of the players are just simply not good enough. I imagine a new manager/coach would get more out of this squad than Emery, but it wouldn’t be a huge difference. The squad is off balance, and lacking in a lot of quality.
Emery was actually a decent appointment at the time I felt. We could have done better, but we also could have done a lot worse (Moyes replacing Fergie). Clearly it hasn’t worked out with Emery, but I feel confident the new regime won’t wait years to pull the plug, like what we saw with Wenger.
I think the new regime, Raul, Josh, etc, are doing a good job in difficult circumstances. Remember that it was Gazidis that appointed Emery, so maybe the new regime have less loyalty to him, regarding making a change soon. The new regime have made the odd mistake (who doesn’t?), but it’s been very positive overall.
We are still going through a transitional phase, and the powers to be won’t get everything right, but I’m pleased so far. They do need to continue their decent start by sacking Emery asap. I think it’ll be a huge mistake waiting until the summer to replace him.
Can you please list this lots of players that are just not good enough so we can all how many of were bought by Wenger. Please start with our last first 11 in last 2 epl matches. Thirdman, if we don’t forget the past we won’t see what is wrong with present
Players definitely not good enough, as seen under Wenger, and Emery, or just Emery:
Luiz, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Ozil, Mkhitarian.
Players who’s futures are debatable:
Bellerin, Holding, Chambers, Sokratis, AMN, Ceballos.
Unless I’m forgetting anyone, the unnamed players are the youngsters and experienced players that I want to keep. Even keeping Laca and Auba has it’s own problem of how to start them together and get the best out of them.
Ow! with me the manager is fine but he needs our points of view as fans, he supposed not to substitute all the time we could win of lacca and ozil still in play kids they have energy but their not experienced their last ball always poor opponent do count attach they score. chambers he’s struggling while Berlin is there what’s that. and I don’t need more kids in the league games one or two enough….
You’ve got it wrong Larry, they saw the damage that was done by letting Wenger (the best manager we ever had) go on too long when things started to falter. It’s a new regime and if we lose to Leicester and possibly slip to 9th in the table next week, he will be removed.
I’m hoping Freddie is put in charge until the end of the season when it can be reviewed properly. Emery Out.
To be absolutely spanked by Leicester?
Larry, oh Larry
1) Football IS a business, the board need business acumen. They also have significant footnall figures
2) if you believe Stewart Robson, a bitter ex player with an agenda, give up football
3) IMO they WILL sack UE by Christmas if results do not improve
4) The squad is NOT lacking quality, far from it. THis squad should be walking top 4. The coach is issue. Saliba will greatly improve defence, Tierney already showing he will be best LB in league soon. Bellerin still easing way back. That should greatly help defence, however they will still get exposed until those in mf do better. UE is cocking up Torreira.
ThirdManJW can you please stop saying wenger left the club in a mess. I won’t give Wenger 100% but I will surely give him 80%. Playing the kind of football that brings people to emirates over many years. I was on the waiting list for many many years, at a point I was on 100+. I always buy tickets from ticket master and it was always more expensive. The club made so much money, we were at the top for a long time. Wenger didn’t spend enough money (he should have bought luis Suarez, and many other good players he let go because of chicken changes. His last 2 years were not too good as well. But the man conducted himself with grace, fans were kept entertained, we played so many beautiful footballs and some teams were snacks to us. Also won FA. Give Emery one FA and we won’t be calling for his head, or spurs, at that time Liverpool. We did beat pep Man City on the way to wining the FA. And he left the club in a very good financial state hence Emery could spend 200m. It is totally unfair to keep slamming the man every time. Give him some credit. How many full stadium does Emery has? No one wants to watch his football.
You call Emery a decent manger and you keep slamming Wenger? What planet are you from, what has emery done for this club?
ThirdManJW can I ask have you been to the Emirates Stadium before, have you been to the OAK ROOM, have you seen what Wenger made the club build while managing to stay top for? You have no freaking idea what Wenger archived and a man, a manger and one that plays the game in such a way that people from all over the world wants to watch us play. He gave the club a global brand and kept us entertained. I know he didn’t win you heart desired trophies but he did a lot more than meet the eye. I watched the wolves highlight and the stadium was almost empty even before they scored. That is many years of hard work building the Arsenal football club going down under Emery. 2015 1 was still 100000+ in the waiting list.
@Pat
I’ll try and answer as much as I can, and in order.
Did Wenger, along with Gazidis, leave us in a mess. Absolutely! I am stunned you would even question that. For example: Consistently letting our players contracts run down so we either got hardly anything for them, or nothing. Which cost us hundreds of millions for reinvestment. Buying rejects from our rivals. Constant thrashings at the hands of our rivals, year, year after. Terrible performances in Europe every year. Swapping our best player for one of Utd’s worst. Complete disregard for defending for about a decade. Lack of ambition. Too soft on his players, and no mentality. And so many much as well.
Of course Wenger did great things as well, that’s why Wenger had a mixed time for me. I’m only mentioning the negatives, because we’re talking about the mess.
The stadium has been consistently less full under Wenger than Emery.
Emery was a decent manager at the time of his appointment. I think only Pep had won more trophies than him in the previous 5 years, and you don’t win 3 Europa Leagues in row with a club the size of Seville without being at least “decent” at your job. How many European trophies did Wenger win?
I do get a bit sick of hearing how Wenger built the Emirates. Did he put some of his own money into the project like the fans did? We have as much a claim to that stadium given our financial investment.
Did Wenger play a major role in turning us into a global brand. Of course he did. He gave not only Arsenal fans, but all football fans, some of best football we had ever seen, and may never see again. But were Arsenal a laughing stock home, and abroad when he joined? Because we certainly were when he left. Why do you think rival fans kept singing about wanting Wenger to stay.
The stadium consistently empty under Wenger? Are you serious now? That only happened at the last season of Arsene Wenger, I gave you a real life example and you can ask anyone who buys tickets, Wenger did not build the emirates with his Own money, he did it while competing favourably in big competitions, ask Poch? His first year after the stadium and now 11 on the table. We always compete, he didn’t win premier league, but he was always competing for a very long time. He wasn’t out of top 4 until 2017, he was always competing. This is Tottenham’s first year after building the stadium and they are already out. Players contracts is not just down to him, the player always want more money and if the board feels they shouldn’t pay the huge amount then players can go. I am not saying Wenger was perfect but I totally disagree he left the club in a state. 2 bad years out of 20 is not a failure. You and I have never run a club so please don’t rub the man’s achievements in the mould. It was his prudence that made 200 million available for the next manager. Give credits were it is due. Players will leave (either in contracts or out of contracts) Wenger did not create any mess for Arsenal football club. He did so many things right and the 20% he did wrong can NEVER QUALIFY HIM AS A FAILURE. Tickets were more expensive during Wenger’s time and people were still buying it, there were no space for new red members, now no one wants our tickets, it has become cheaper. If you buy tickets you will understand what am saying.
Sorry I phrased the empty stadium bit wrong. You’re right it was only gradually emptier towards the end of his reign, I just meant we’ve seen more empty stadiums under Wenger than Emery, and by far larger numbers in the context of each specific game.
In terms of competing for the league, it was 14 years straight of not doing so under Wenger. Only 2 second place finishes post Invincibles, in 14 years, both of which we were never in the title race, was completely unacceptable. I know there were financial restraints, but one cannot excuse 14 straight years of not being competitive in the league.
How can you say it was only down to Wenger that the new manager had £200 million to spend? By your own admission, you then make Wenger responsible for all transfers. We lost out on approximately £200 million on Ramsey, Sanchez, and Ozil alone. When you factor in Ozil’s wages, and all the other players we let go for free or next to nothing, I dread to think what the true figure. Because of ridiculous policy, we never had the funds to replace like with like. Instead, we lose a WC player, and replace with an average player.
As I keep saying, Wenger isn’t a failure, he’s a legend. But for the life of me, I cannot think of another manager at a big club that would survive 9 years straight without winning a trophy? 14 years straight of not winning the league or even challenging for it. 9 years straight of flopping in Europe. 22 years straight of not winning a European trophy.
Stopped buying physically and mentally strong players and allowed Arsenal to be bullied in midfield. Molly coddled too many players, without showing “tough love”.
Let’s answer the headline question of this post:ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has to happen before Emery gets fired. All the things that needed to happen have already happened.
It is difficult to imagine a more clueless manager. Even Bayern can fire their manager after 1 loss after that same manager won plenty of trophies with them.
The sooner the better and the less embarrassment will be caused.
But by Saturday we might be only 3 points off top 4 and still leaders of our Europa group! How can the board justify terminating Emery when in such a strong position? Nonetheless I salute Bayern. If the Arsenal board had taken this approach initially we would have rid ourselves off of Wenger’s bad influence years ago. Wenger normalized humiliating scorelines at this club!
I cant blame the board now,they have done well in the transfer market and i cant blame more on the players,they are Emery’s choice. The blame should rather go to the coach who buy the players,choose the style of play and tactical approach to games. He is not simply good enough. It is true however that the chairman/the board won’t sack Emery because indeed,they are only interested in the club brand and punching of the calculating machine to concentrating their profit while the fans suffer.
The Board won’t spend money on decent central defenders or a tall strong commanding defensive midfielder. These issues unresolved for at least 10 years.
We all need to realize that the great years of Wenger are gone and we need to focus on where we are going under the current Management team for whom the Leicester match is crucial.A heavy defeat, which is not out of the question given our poor quality CB’s and the lack of a tried and trusted DM, and the pressure will be well and truly on Emery.Leicester play in a similar way to Liverpool,indeed their midfield three is arguably only second to that of Man City.That said we have the players up front to hurt them on the counter attack,but we need to match them in terms of intensity and energy.Sadly with Socratis and Luis at CB I cannot see us winning in what could be a high scoring match.
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Without swaying from the title,
Can we sell Emery to Bayern Munich?
This will save the money to sack him and the Board will be happy.
The Board can employ the Emery fanboys here to prepare the sales pitch to Bayern.
If done, they can boast about how their idol is wanted by the giant club in Germany! and it will be a happy win-win-win solution for all.
Fire UE without wasting time. He has done no-think to Arsenal. Time wasting & the Team is going down & down too
Malish from Yei South sudan
I think our squad is weaker this season compared to last. 10 players left in the summer who were mainly current or recent internationals. They were replaced by us buying 4 players, bringing one in on loan and promoting 4 youngsters from the academy. We also brought back Chambers and Martinez from their loans. They were not wanted last season. With so many changes and such inexperience in the team, it was very likely in my view that we would go backwards for a while. As the players gel and gain experience we may begin to improve. I would also question the wisdom of some of our transfer dealings. We desperately need a quality centre back and so we bought a young 19 year old kid from France who has played about 20 games at senior level. We then loaned him back. Doesn’t help us this season and is a risky deal. Leicester spent less on Soyuncu. I would like to think our management team plan our transfer dealings but the Ceballos loan makes me question that. They must have known Ramsey was going and that they intended to get rid of Mhki and Elneny. This would leave us with Xhaka and Ozil as our only experienced midfielders. We have Guendo, Torriera, AMN, smith Rowe and Willock. All either novices or still finding their way in the Premier League. We needed one or preferably 2 experienced players in their with a bit of power and know how. Instead the board brought in a young inexperienced player from Spain on a one year loan without an option to buy. What was the forward thinking strategy with that deal? Until we do much better in the transfer market we will struggle whoever is our manager.
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