Unai Emery

[BFG4]

Every post on here wil be about the squad Emery has or how he needs to be given time but that means fuck all in relation to what happened tonight. Emery failed to set the team up right and failed to motivate them - away from home, he is Wenger except he doesn't fiddle with his jacket. I will also add that the "give him credit" stuff needs to end after tonight. We are beyond shit and only found ourselves in a position to challenge for top 4, due to the shitness of others. Maybe during the summer he will get things right but this season is Wengeresque.

[oaodan]

Every post on here wil be about the squad Emery has or how he needs to be given time but that means fuck all in relation to what happened tonight. Emery failed to set the team up right and failed to motivate them - away from home, he is Wenger except he doesn't fiddle with his jacket. I will also add that the "give him credit" stuff needs to end after tonight. We are beyond shit and only found ourselves in a position to challenge for top 4, due to the shitness of others. Maybe during the summer he will get things right but this season is Wengeresque.

I do not think it ispossible to motivate Ozil, Mikitaryin etc. They don't give a shit, it's obvious Ozil downed tools years ago.

[wilson2.0]

redemption can come if he wins the europea league.

[Gunner Rob]

There is no way under the ownership of Kroenke that we will get anyone better to manage the club, so everyone does need to get behind him.
any frustrations take out on the YANK owner

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Please fuck off dick, all that so called passion of running up and down the line has turned to a guy arguing constantly with the 4th official (something we all slated Wenger for) and sitting there asking his assistant coach questions like "why are we so shit" or "my tactics don't work in this country, fuck the English leagues mentality of trying every game"

[northbank123]

Taking a very high-level look at where we are now; does anybody think that this shower of shit squad could reasonably expect to get more than 65-70 points, or to be clear of these frankly much better Chelsea and United squads? 66 points and semi-finals of the Europa League is a pretty decent return for this squad to be honest - I'm honestly not sure that it's any (or at least significantly) better than the likes of Leicester.

That doesn't make performances like today any more palatable. I looked at our fixtures a few weeks ago and had no faith of us winning away from home again. We managed the freak win at Watford - if it wasn't for that we would have probably got thrashed just like at the other two mid-table sides. We are completely fucking powderpuff away from home, and completely disorganised in every sense.

We look completely knackered. We hit the wall around December when the fixtures were coming thick and fast, and we're doing the same again now. Torreira summarises our collapses - the ankle-biting dynamo from the first half of the season just isn't at the races. We desperately need to improve fitness ahead of next year. We have the ability to turn up in big home games with real tempo and intensity throughout the match, but in the other 85% of games we are just completely sluggish for the majority of it.

Ultimately, he inherited a shit squad which has also had a culture of spineless and defensive apathy deeply embedded over the past decade. My view was that a new managed will need time, faith and investment (he definitely won't get the latter). Klopp took over in early October 2015, and in his first season they finished 8th with 60 points behind West Ham - fewer points than the previous season with a better team than ours all things considered. They've since finished 17 and 25 points off the winners; however, Klopp has been given a massive amount of time, patience and money. They are now a phenomenally good team, like it or not. Somebody posted on the match thread that 3 seasons on only 2 of the 18-man squad from his first game are still at the club - bear that in mind.

I don't know whether Emery is the right man - I have seen a lot which I like about him this season, but also far too many familiar recurring issues. I think he has bought well - Sokratis is average but by far the best of our bad bunch and the right sort of player, Leno has been the best keeper in the league second half of the season, Torreira looked quality before his form nosedived after New Year and Guendouzi has overall looked good for a kid - these are all cheap buys in today's market where Chelsea's average arrogant keeper or that clogger Lukaku cost more than that lot put together. Only Lichtsteiner has flopped (which is a surprise to me).

Personally I would absolutely stick with him, and next season will be a better yardstick. That said, he also needs investment, which he just isn't going to get. I haven't really talked much about Kroenke because frankly it's too depressing, but realistically no matter who we can lure to do the job we just aren't going to compete without serious investment, which just isn't going to happen.

For what it's worth, I really think we will turn up on Thursday and reckon we will do enough to beat Valencia over two legs. I actually reckon we are a good bet to win the whole thing. I also have no confidence in us winning at Burnley on the last day of the season, whether there's anything riding on it or not. We are a funny but utterly predictable team.

[northbank123]

Should also highlight the fucking farce situation he inherited with Ozil and Ramsey.

Ozil - the guy has given up any pretense of giving a fuck about Arsenal, football or seemingly life generally. His customary Christmas sniffles have extended to having a bit of a break with some non-descript injury or illness whenever he feels like it. His performances (however much sympathy you give him for playing alongside Iwobi etc) are poorer than they've been since he joined and he seems to be a disruptive personality. That game a month or so ago when he was too busy looking at the sky because a cross didn't reach him whilst a more switched-on dedicated player scored from the next phase summed him up - he just does not give one iota of a fuck. On top of that, he is paid £350 k/w which pisses off just about everybody who has or might play for us. He also seems to be pretty disruptive in the dressing room.

Ramsey - frustrating player but for all but the most blinkered a player well worth having in the squad. Despite having our fingers burned so many times, his contract has been allowed to run right down and the whole 'contract withdrawal' made us a laughing stock. For what it's worth I reckon he had no intention of signing that deal and have no problem with us taking control in that way, but still how the fuck are we in this position again? He has looked a cut above the rest of our midfield in big games and he's walking away on a free - primarily because he sees that lazy fucker Ozil earning £350k per week to play when he wants with a token amount of effort and understandably thinks he is worth at least half of that. Which to be fair, he probably isn't in actual terms.

[Herd]

Theres many things that Emery inherited rather than created and I gave him a pass for the season however there are things about him that worry me greatly.
He seems to place faith in players who are shit ,Xhaka is his main man,this worries me as for me he is a total liability .
He also seems to want to play the type of football Wenger played ,endless keepball with no penetration ,and no midfield responsibility for defense.
Motivation seems to be a key problem too ,Ive warned about the toxic effect of Ozil before and was rubbished but something isnt right for sure .

What really I hope though is that he can operate on a low budget and that he is a good horse trader as he will need a lot of skills to get a decent defense together !

[wilson2.0]

Emery deserves time if nothing else. His major signings of Sokratis, Leno and Torriera have all been good. The problem players are Wengers players. Liverpool didnt hit the ground running with Klopp, and look at them. Liverpool and City are the only two teams with their shit together with unshakable faith in their managers, in fact you could probably say the same about Spurs too.

Although is it worrying Sarri and Chelsea will likely beat us to 4th despite the fact he is a dead man walking. If Chelsea sack their manager for this seasons performances, what does it say about us that we are happy with Emery?

I by no means want to see Emery sacked. He could still win the Europa League and get us backdoor entry into the CL. But a trophy less season and no CL football is no better than what we came to expect with Wenger. Emery absolutely deserves time, but time is not infinite, we cant have another scenario were we put faith in the manager to get it right............eventually. Because for close to 15 years we fans were waiting like dick heads for Wenger to get it right and put it all together........and he never did.

Emery is cleaning up a dogs breakfast, lets not hang him for failing to clean up Arsene's mess in his first year. But at the same time he cant be allowed a free ride. Failure to finish in the top 4 or win the Europa League in my view would would see this season as an acceptable failure.

[augie]

This time last year I was facing an Arsenal future with confidence and a smile on my face again, but that euphoria has well disappeared at this stage The reasons for that change are multiple, but I will list a few of them for now -

1. It has dawned on me now that no manager will be given time to turn this shitfest around - dick has made (and continues to make) too many mistakes for my liking, and I will agree 100% with people when they say that. However the flip side of that is that I honestly don't know where the fans are setting the bar for acceptable performance in a first year manager, and how realistic our expectations are. I agree that we are entitled to see improvements at this stage under dick, and I agree that there are area's that haven't improved and he has to take a large portion of the blame for that, but likewise I think that there are areas that have improved and that is some small encouragement for me.

2. If I am wrong any the dick critics are right, and we sack dick as a result, then where does that leave us ? We signed 3 players last summer that are/will be core members of dick's team for the next couple of years, but will they suit the next manager ? Dick is trying to rid the players of years of wengers tactics/mentality and that wont be done overnight, but now we would be bringing in a different manager and hitting the reset button all over again and expecting players to pick up new tactics/instructions immediately and that aint happening.

3. Whether people choose to accept it or not, our lack of quality players is a key component in our ongoing struggles, and will continue to be a huge roadblock for any manager coming in. That issue is made a million times worse by the fact that we are giving our manager (whoever that manager will be) a transfer budget which is far, far exceeded by even most of the smallest clubs in the division, but nowadays quality costs money and we wont spend that money. Any manager coming in will have to buy cheap and fill the squad with overpaid players that nobody will buy/can afford cos of the inflated wages le cock has them on, and players who don't want to leave because of the aforementioned wages gravy train they are on, and the long long term contracts there are on. The only funds a new manager will be able to raise is for sales of players like jenks who will bring in chump change, and wont have much impact on our transfer kitty.

4. A lot of fans keep banging the LA rams stadium drum as a reason why the wiggy c.unt has no interest in us, but for me they are way wrong on this - I follow the nfl big time and I know the timeline involved, so I can tell you with absolute certainty that Kroenke's indifference to the performance of our club pre-dates his new stadium by a distance. All we have to do is look at the performances of his other "sports franchises" to know where the man stands on ambitions for success, and we should also look at his total non appearance at our games for confirmation of how he couldn't give two fcuks. Manure fans slate the glazers constantly, but they attend games frequently, and have always supported their managers with huge transfer budgets. This problem will cause 2 further problems for us going forward cos (a) no top manager will sign on for a club of our size being run like 2 bob rovers and (b) without the necessary transfer funds no manager will be able to ensure enough progress to keep the fans on board.

At this stage I don't give a fcuk if we sack dick or who we have as manager, cos we are now mission impossible - we are a former great club with no ambitions from the owners to return to that status, but have a fanbase who expect to return to that level regardless. We are going to become one of those clubs who will sack managers on a regular basis and I honestly don't give a fcuk anymore

[begeegs]

I like Emery, but I do think that he tries to be too clever too often with his tactical formation changes. I think that it likely confuses players and also assumes that we have the players to accomodate all of the various formations/instructions, which we clearly do not have. For example, Xhaka is not a mobile midfielder, so putting him in a two man midfield is just plain stupid. He can't tackle either, so what is the point? It makes his partner needing to do twice the work to cover for him.

That, for me, is the biggest black mark against him. We have players like Kolasinak who can only play as a wing-back because he isn't great defensively. He needs to stop trying to make wholesale changes when we do not have the personnel to action that plan. For my money, I would stick with a couple of formations which actually suit the players that we have, not formations that suit no one.

Also in the last few weeks, bar Napoli, it looks like players have downed tools. It really does. I know that no one can legislate individual cock-ups like Mustafi (well, you could, but he wouldn't get in the line up then) or sending offs, but we have looked like absolute shite for about one month now. I know that 8 games in a month when you can't rotate will tire people, but that can't be the only reason for some of the poor performances.

We do have some good players, but we also have some players who are useless in any new formation that Emery picks, like Xhaka, Ozil, etc. We also have players who are just aren't good enough to be starting every week. In a squad game, we could accomodate someone like Iwobi, but he shouldn't be a starter against teams that are in the top half of the table or in Europe, but there we are.

I feel sorry for Emery for some of the issues that he is facing, but at the same time, he seems intent on self-harm as well with some of his baffling decisions due to his obsession with formational changes when we do not have the players for them. I think that he does deserve another season (he is going to get it anyway), but I really hope that he can clear out the coasters, the never will bes and the mistake riddled this summer. It will be a very big ask. but I think that it is doable. Personally, I would start with Ozil, Miki, Mustafi and Xhaka - get rid hook or by crook.

I'd be very surprised to see all of them go, but please Santa - grant me my early wishes!

[Eboue-Why?]

I want him to succeed of course but any Manager who says the game plan yesterday was to defend well and score goals....

[Jock Gooner]

Xhaka - I can't stand the way he plays either BUT look at our performances without him in the side when Dick has tinkered with the team and played Elniny and the Doozy in midfield. Likewise Ramsey is a very frustrating guy BUT we frequently operate better with him in the team. When we waste so much money on wages for the worthless why would paying Ramsey a fraction of the Ozil wage be that bad an idea. But no, we've let him go for no money when we have no money to buy a replacement. That really isn't that clever whatever you think of him. It's fine to fuck off the likes of Ramsey when you have a plan but we don't have one. There are so many things wrong with us at the moment it is ridiculous.

We are fucked and as I have said before we can blame TOF for pissing huge amounts of money up against the wall and fucking up contracts. I actually heard Ray Houghton on Talksport a few days ago mention that TOF was to blame for the state of our squad but there are far too many fannies in the media who haven't called out TOF on it. Wiggy is a cu.nt but if I were him I wouldn't be in a huge hurry to trust my own money to another football guy when the last one thought burning money was funny. Now that we are in a position of making an annual loss and likely to continue to make losses in future as we continue to miss out on CL and try to remedy TOF's joke squad the chances of wiggy being able to syphon off cash seems less (?). If he won't invest serious cash then that becomes the status quo and possibly even a slow downward spiral.....then what for him.....sell ?

[OneBardGooner]

This time last year or the year before that or the year before that we all wanted the end of Wenger and when that day finally came - It was a HUGE sigh of relief - one of those breaths out that seems to exercise all the pent up anger, tension, stress, hate and despair from the body & mind.

We all knew that it was going to be a mammoth task to 'begin' to get our club back n the path of anything resembling success. But I don't think anyone except maybe one or two within the club knew just how Massive a Challenge actually lay before us following wenger's utter mis-management of everything Arsenal.

It was only as the months began to roll by that the Truth began to emerge and we became aware of just how SERIOUSLY BAD nad FUCKED UP the situation was - With wenger having lead the club down a complete Dead End; even to the point where not only did the club have to pay him off, but all those who had been riding the gravy train for between 8 and 12 years, with one man at the helm Deciding "Everything". Then there was the complete lack of discipline in the academy, and many other ludicrous situations on contracts ( where bonuses didn't have to be paid if players didn't play a certain amount of time in a season) - No wonder the substitutions were a farce. And where non-playing/coaching staff were being paid shyte loads of money for doing what wenger said - it was he who agreed and authorised it all)

The dis-mantling of that ugly machine he had assembled is STILL ongoing, not just the shyte players he bought and put on long contracts and impossibly high wages, but the infra-structures within the infra-structures.

I recall 99% of those on here saying "We're going to have to give the new manager time" - an easy thing to say, in the (new) light of wenger being sacked and all the rumours of who would take over, who could possibly take over, the bookies even had Mikel Arteta as odds on, and many were shaking their heads with a BIG "No" and rightly so. But we got a manager who has a decent record...whether he can pull off this Mammoth Task is another thing.

We eventually got someone from outside the rumour radar and so, even those un-impressed by his appointment at the time said 'let's give him time',

Again I say it is an easy thing to say up-front but not as easy to stand by when the going gets difficult and Crunch time comes.


It IS going to take at least 3 - 4 seasons before we can even begin to get back to some kind of status where we can challenge for the prem, maybe longer? And THAT is only if Emery is allowed a free hand to dump the dross; of which there is a plenty again thanks to wenger, and then only if he is given the financial backing to buy the players we need and we need at least 6 or 7 and at today's prices I do not see wiggy backing him to that extent.

Emery is still doing his best with a bad lot, yes we have some decent players, but the majority are not up to it.

Ramsey has shown how good he can be - but again thanks to wenger's well dodgy wage scales he is off because he wants the same as Ozil - and Ozil is Never worth the money he is on - we all know he is a luxury player, amazing skills but not the kind of player we need at this time of flux and total transformation.

I believe Emery can get us through this, is it Painful ??? Too fucking right it is, but this is where fans either stand by their words of 'give the manager time' (2 - 3 seasons I think was the average time span inferred) or fold.

This of course is made all the worse / more painful by the fact that the scum have a very good manager and are on the 'up', they have a better team than us and all things are positive for them, we are doing badly and having to re-invent ourselves, they have a brand new stadium which is better than ours.

And of course there are the other teams who although going through various crises of their own the chavs & manure and the latter will definitely be given the funds, the chavs? well that depends on the Transfer Embargo and if their manager remains in place.. The likes of man $hitty and the Victims have invested well in players and are definitely at present streets ahead of the pack. And now Wolves and Everto have serious money behind them.

Not looking good is it!?

The thing is we have become so used to getting angry and feeling desperate under wenger, that it seems his ghost is still very much present, but the current awfulness IS a legacy of his reign, a lot of changes, transformation and healing is needed before we can eventually no longer be haunted by the cun.t.

To already be calling for his head just shows how fickle and hollow those words spoken 'give him time' were.

If Emery were sacked tomorrow, the in-coming manager; regardless of who it was would still face the same challenges.

We need to stand by the Manager for at least the next 2 - 3 seasons.

We also need to do all we can to get Kroenke to back him with the money he needs and how the fuck we do that? I have not a scooby.

[Eboue-Why?]

Excellent post OneBard