GoonerMuzz wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 7:14 pm
Steve you know as well as I do those figures mean next to nothing, they could have been the same, worse or better if he'd remained in charge. The only thing that can be said is that the results under him were getting worse before he was sacked and they haven't improved since he was sacked.
I will happily concede the fact that a lot of the issues weren't just down to Emery, the players attitude and application under him were lacking however his lack of leadership was also an issue whether you like it or not. For a club it's always a lot easier to replace one man than 6 or 7 disruptive players, it's always been like that in football.
My opinion is that after a good start he lost his assertiveness and never seemed to build a team and identity, he was constantly swapping players around and clashed with some of the senior players in the dressing room (there are two sides to that story and not very much has come out from him on it which shows a level class the players should aspire too). For me he was not adaptable enough for the EPL and was very much like a latter season Wenger, he expected to outscore opponents without the team to do so.
Whether his replacement will be any better I am doubtful but he should be given time to at least try to turn things around, you have espoused the opinion that Emery should have been given more time but you dont seem to be willing to give Arteta any time what so ever which I find unusual.
Fair points - he ultimately lost his job because of a poor run of results, there's no hiding from that and I've always conceded that. However, I happen to believe that the points being argued in Arteta's favour equally applied to Emery. Lets take the defence as an example - there is no doubt in my mind that an ENTIRE new back four needs to be built....but we all know that unlike the Bank of Pep, our rebuilding process could not be one transfer window, or two.....probably even three.
The defence he inherited - Bellerin (an injury prone converted winger who was unavailable for a year), Holding (the most promising and was playing well as part of the 22 game unbeaten run before injury wrecked his season), Mustafi (uncoachable as proven since), Sokratis (a positive addition last year and alongside Holding looked good, but shite this year), Kolasinac (fat, slow but cheap and available hence his signing). The other fringe defenders (or makeshift ones) Maitland Niles, Jenkinson, Mavropanos, Oh and of course he inherited that geriatric helmet in goal, and a permacrock captain in Koscileny who wanted to fuck off anyway.
He then signed Leno who has been (for the most part) pretty decent), signed Tierney in the last window (one for the future but sadly crocked nearly the whole time), Saliba (who everyone is now craving to pull back from loan). One more CB and RB and one could argue that rebuild was nearly there - as some of us sensible folk called for - done over two whole seasons and four full windows as sadly we don't have 200m to buy Stones, Danilo, Mendy, Walker etc all in one hit.....and we certainly can't afford for any of them not to hit the ground running
Similarly in midfield - Shit for Brains left us with nothing. Dick got more of a tune out of Ramsey in his last year (thanks to the board for another free departure) and brought in two holders in Torreira and Guendouzi for a combined £35m. He was stuck with Xhaka as is Arteta as no c.unt wants him (I read today that Hertha only taking him on loan
)
With regards to Arteta - on the contrary - I will give him more time to sort out this mess than most on here. He needs the rest of this season and the whole of the next one to come close to addressing a decade of decline (as did Emery).
I rejoice in telling Wenger luvvies everywhere that the man did more damage to this football club in the past 10 years, than he did good in the first 12 and despite the usual abuse, I believe that is being played out today. Whether people like it or not, Emery is a very accomplished coach who performed miracles with next to no cash at Valencia and Sevilla. He also achieved more with PSG than Marco Silva Mark II (Tuchel) ever has. I still believe he could have returned us to the CL places but we will never know
The main point of my posts however, is that people are forgetting all the things that Emery inherited but happily using those things now to defend Arteta (losing mentality, players attitude, board, lack of funds etc) which isn't consistent. As said before, and what I've always done on here, if the guy turns out to do great things and improve us more than Emery, I will be the first to hold my hands up and say so.
