Arsenal leak suggests execs want Emery to stay

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Come on everyone, be strong, not long to go, just one more week of relentless boredom over the international week, then we can return to politics. I’m kind of hoping that Jezza Corbyn will continue his epic ‘TAKE IT BACK’ campaign to The Arsenal. Take the club out of foreign ownership and fund it using the power of the nation! Free tickets for everyone. A beautiful vision of the game.

I’d vote for that.

The Mirror is reporting that Unai Emery has been given 4 easy games to save his job. The club are trying to make things as simple as possible for the manager to stay in place until the end of the season. I think more and more folk are convinced he’s on a 2-year deal, which runs counter to David Ornstein’s info, but would make a lot of sense considering we have a contracts man as dastardly as Huss Fahmy overseeing things. That technically makes it cheaper to keep him, but if he misses top 4, the math doesn’t look sexy.

The laughable part about the whole leak, which probably didn’t come from Raul or Edu, is the club don’t think sacking Emery will change things.

That my friends, has been the crux of my confusing point over the past few weeks. Emery is bad. Really bad. But binning him off isn’t the only solve. My bigger worry is that Edu has been here for quite a bit now and the feeling still remains that we’re in trouble regardless of what we do with the manager. That says we’ve not moved the needle on infrastructure, because well-run clubs can survive an Emery (look at Leicester).

What happened to Raul’s beautiful vision he shared this summer? Perhaps we gave too much of it over to bad decision makers. If the head of the fish is rotten, you know the rest. To still be at the start of a transition 18 months after Arsene Wenger left is quite something, especially when you consider the football upgrade was well underway before he was binned.

I’m not down with the doom and gloom though. I know that there are lots of problems at the club and they go beyond the man in the dugout. But a lot can be done with a galvanising figure running the show.

Firstly, a better communicator can sooth the fans and give them a realistic overview of what’s going on. The next manager has to be a statement about the next 3 years, not a hopeful gamble on the next 5 months.

Secondly, a better coach with clearer intentions will help the team immeasurably. Do we have the perfect squad? No. Has anyone ever stated that we do? No. Coaching goes an awful long way in football, and it’s clear we’ve not been getting our share of it. Whatever you think about our expensively assembled squad, the reality is it finished 2 points off 3rd last season, then we spent a fortune in the summer to upgrade it (and added some tasty young kids to the options list). We need a coach that can work with the talent he has and create an offering that is more than the sum of its parts. Nagelsmann did a brilliant job of that when he was at Hoffenheim. Potter built a mini Patriots when he was at Ostersunds, focusing heavily on rehabbing ‘finished’ players into a positive culture, massively out-batting his average. Marco Rose instilled his 11 principles into Salzburg and had them flying high in the Europa League and smashing an invincible season. Arsenal’s players look so bad at the moment because they have a drab manager that doesn’t know how to get the most out of them. We’re Leicester last season (and the season before that).

Thirdly, OUR biggest weakness, Granit Xhaka, is trying to exit the club. This is such a magical gift. So beautiful and pretty. If the club can kick into gear and find a replacement for him in January, it could restart our flagging season. We can target a mobile defensive-minded midfielder that wants to play with discipline. I know it’s a tough ask, but we managed to find a 25 goal a season striker 2 years ago with little problem and there might be clubs willing to sell after the first batch of teams exit the Champions League.

Arsenal is in a mess of its own making, but that should never be an excuse for inaction. Businesses make mistakes all the time, the key to fixing them is to generally own up to what you did, assess what the core issue was, then rectify it fast and hope no one notices. Throwing your hands up in the press and saying, ‘we’re fucked whatever we do’ is embarrassingly defeatist.

I think one of the biggest misses with Emery centres around his inability to create a culture. That problem stems from a lack of vision. If players don’t have anything to believe in, why would they adhere to a set of behaviours or actions that support the cause? That’s why we have a captain that still thinks his reaction to the fans was cool. That’s why we have players liking salty posts on Instagram. That’s why half efforts on the pitch aren’t nipped in the bud.

Find a manager that can focus the players around an exciting vision, then build a culture that supports it. How hard can it be to find a manager that can deliver on such a basic requirement of the job?

That’s why I’d support finding that manager in January. Get the grim December out of the way, put the feelers our for a manager with a vision and a plan, then when the tough games are done, see what they can do over the next 5 months. At worst, the groundwork for next season can be laid, at best, maybe the players make a run for top 4.

Right, PART 2 of my podcast with Matt Scott is below. Listen to it, enjoy it, share with a friend. It’s that straightforward.

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Graham62

Marko

If this was a Juventus or RM blog you’d be getting pelters from other posters.

“You can’t say things like that, it’s not right”

Oh Boohoo!!

Pierre

Fifa world rating of 4 is evidence of our standing in world football .

The foreigners on here will be eating their words again , as they were in their support of Emery.

Graham62

Marko

No joke.

Being perfectly serious.

Luteo Guenreira

Interlulls are the worst, but it’s always fun to watch Graham have a conversation with someone while having no idea what’s actually being said to him.

Batistuta

Come on Ireland! One more

Un na naai

Bati

Exactly. And that’s kind of the argument I’m making. We really should be seeing more British first teamers at arsenal.

azed

“My other point was that the average tenure for a premiership is 2.5 years. So signing a 3 years contract without any exit clause is just bad contract negotiation. Not to have exit clause without compensation for failure to fullfil explicit targets is just doubling down on incompetence.” Valentin 1) Nobody knows if there’s an exit clause in the contract with Emery. 2) Gazidis was the CEO when Emery signed the contract so Gazidis would have had the final say not Raul. 3) It is still Mathematically possible to finish in the top 4 so there’s no way you can… Read more »

Pierre

Marko
“The quality of the English youth coming through is there for all to see.???
Where”

Sancho
Sterling
Mount
Chilwell
Rashford
Abrahams
Foden
Alexander-Arnold.
Maddison.
Rice.
Hudson Odoi.

How’s that for starters…and who knows , maybe Saka, Nelson , Nketiah , Smith-Rowe maybe knocking on the door

Marko

If this was a Juventus or RM blog you’d be getting pelters from other posters.

What the hell are you talking about

Marko

Fifa world rating of 4 is evidence of our standing in world football .The foreigners on here will be eating their words again , as they were in their support of Emery.

???

KAY Boss

So some ‘English ‘ here think having majority of the players being English is a recipe for passion and success? For all I know the English game wasn’t pleasant enough to watch until foreigners came to the fold. The PL was usually hoof and chase till a certain wenger came and changed the dynamics of the PL. Unnecessary pride, is the reason some usually don’t want success for the English or their clubs. Both English and non English need each other to make the PL stand out. Maybe the English are usually poor to average at best except for a… Read more »

G8

Until the late 90s, and early 00s, Arsenal had identity with british legends like Adams, Bould, kewon, Seaman, Wright, Rocky, Cole, Parlour, Campbell etc Most of the PL teams had 90% British players back then.. Things changed, for better or worse! The invincibles had only Cole and Campbell as starters if I am not mistaken, with keown and parlour used sparingly during the unbeaten run The club still had it’s core of Brits when the decline started a decade ago, Arsenal had British core of Ramsey, Willshere, Gibbs, Ox, Walcott, and other youth, still managed to Fuck it up.. The… Read more »

Graham62

So, let’s clarify. We do need a “British core” to make things work at Arsenal FC . Can we agree on that? By the way “core” does not mean “majority”. Some of you misinterpret quite a lot of things on here because that’s what seems to make you happy. The thing is, Arsenal lost its real identity the day it left Highbury. Those English players we once had, who played with their heart on their sleeve, died along with it. Imo, Wenger pretended to understand our clubs culture which was confirmed when he failed to continue to follow the path… Read more »

Marko

Some of you misinterpret quite a lot of things on here because that’s what seems to make you happy.

What was misinterpreted? You were honestly pretty clear with what you were saying

Marko

The thing is, Arsenal lost its real identity the day it left Highbury. Those English players we once had, who played with their heart on their sleeve, died along with it.

Last season at Highbury on Ashley Cole and Campbell were English and prominent in the Arsenal first team.

He deviated from what made our club great. A mixture of different nationalities with different technical and physical skill sets and a core of Britishness to make it all tick.

Yeah they made it all tick together.

Shoot me.

Smartest thing you said all day.

Valentin

Azed, I am not disputing that Gazidis was incompetent. I am just stating that on Emery’s contract at a minimum Raul did not compensate for Gazidis incompetence. The way David Moyes was sacked by ManUtd was well known, so it is not like adding break claused for not reaching quantifiable targets had never been heard of. According to David Ornstein , Emery’s contract does not contain any early break clause. Here a direct quote from him. “On the option – and I fully respect other people’s information – I’ve been told [by] multiple sources that it’s a three-year contract without… Read more »

Distant legrover

It isn’t having English or British players that’s important but having British players of good to great talent and mentality. The reason why we celebrate Adams, Keown, Dixon, Cole, etc isn’t just because they were British but because they were influential and talented British players. Justin Hoyte is British but no one ever talks about him.

Guys like Walcott, Wilshere, Ramsey could have been those guys for us but that project didn’t work out for different reasons. Though you can argue that Ramsey influenced the team to a couple of FA cup trophies before his exit.

Un na naai

Distant

Had those player’s had leaders like Keown and Adams around to guide them through or even weighty and platt and parlour I feel they’d have benefitted hugely
These lads had to swim in a team bereft if identity by then

Un na naai

Marko’s on a wind up

Tony

You just can’t make this sh*t up.

Question in my mind is does Emery know what he’s instructing the players to do?

“Arsenal stars instructed to tell Unai Emery “we don’t know what you’re doing”

Arsenal are struggling under Unai Emery this season and former Gunners left-back Lee Dixon has called on the players to challenge their manager’s methods on the training ground”

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-stars-instructed-tell-unai-20910584

Separate note:

West Ham looking at Benitez if the fire Pellegrino it’s being reported.

China1

Interlull do us all a favour and kindly FUCK OFF

China1

Like I know it’s means to say this but is there really any point in half the games we play?

Literally half of our international matches without fail are against teams comprised of part time electricians. Can we just save everyone the bother and declare such games a 3-0 before kick off?

Or just organize meaningful competitive games instead?

China1

I like the World Cup and euros but they really need to cut the endless qualifiers and friendlies down a peg

Dark Hei

“Those English players we once had, who played with their heart on their sleeve, died along with it.”

I could say the same of Alexis Sanchez, Bacary Sagna, Lauren, Lungberg, Koscielny, Coquelin, Martinelli…..

Oh wait.

Why not just say we need lots of guys who play with their hearts on their sleeve.

Graham62

Marko

Who are you quoting in 23:31 post?

The first paragraph was me. The second paragraph wasn’t me.

Also, can I suggest you put quotation marks in your text as it makes it easier for the other posters to understand where you’re coming from on things.

Wherever that is.

Graham62

Dark Hei

I get what your saying but the gist of last nights discussions was based on “core British players” of a certain quality and mindset.

Graham62

Tony

Goodmorning.

I agree, “you just can’t make this sh*t up”

Batistuta

China 1

That’s the thing isn’t it, first half decent team the English play and they crap themselves… Always good for an over 2 goals on the acca during the qualifiers though, gotta give them that…

Look at Northern Ireland and how they’ve held their own in a group that had Netherlands and Germany pushing them all the way

Batistuta

Euros should be a good watch next sumer though minus the daftness of having different games all over the continent that is…What genius came up with such a stupid idea by the way? Spain will be Spain, purring with talent though you fear not having any of their strikers firing might be a problem but they’re stacked… Italy(my loves) Mancini is doing an absolutely magnificent job with the Azzuri…Haven’t seen the national team play with such flair since like forever… Plus having that exciting mix with the under 21s has been amazing, just hope Immobile and co keep their shooting… Read more »

Siddharth14

Reading reports of Luis Enrique about to become the Manager of Spain national team. I really hope this is true. That would be one option less on the Don Raul’s list of probable Arsenal managers easily available.

Bojangles

I don’t get this “British core” thing. An English core maybe. Scotland has it’s own Fa and league as do Ireland. Scots and Irish players should be considered the same as any other player playing outside of England. Foreign players and/or coaches are not the problem at Arsenal. We need a management group that can identify with the club and with football in general. The first job should be to clear out the board. We have a banker a retailer and a guy who has been there since I left England. Either manage without a board (not sure what oversight… Read more »

Bojangles

Batistuta, I don’t have the same confidence in Maguire as you seem to have either. He has had a number of errors chalked up against him in Internationals, as well as PL games.

Chika

Batistuta, interesting analysis there on the top teams for the Euros.

HellooNasty!

They’re going to keep this mug until the end of the season aren’t they?