Morning all. It’s the day after the day after ‘the news’ that we’re getting a new man was all but confirmed and I think everyone is still coming to terms with the left of field appointment of Emery.
I must say I’m surprised by some sections of our fan base who appear to be against a move like this. I’ve heard people talk about the process being a joke, about how Emery isn’t a top draw name, also how Arteta was at least so different that we knew we were going to try something that we had absolutely no idea whether it would work or not.
Me? Well, I’m pleased with the appointment, because when it comes to my football team I don’t want to be spinning the roulette wheel knowing I’m putting everything on a couple of numbers. I prefer that we’re spreading our Arsenal chips accordingly; there’s a better chance we’ll have some success that way.
Let’s also not suddenly think that we’re a fan base that would be completely healed by the divisions that existed amongst ourselves, the fault lines resting where Arsène was and Arsenal fans falling either one side or the other. Those lines still exist and the appointment of Arteta would, I think, created a starker contrast in opinions than the Emery appointment has.
Like it or not there are people in our fan base who will turn on the new man for attention and tv air time the second the first ‘L’ is recorded. If it was Arteta the ire would be felt very quickly and it would be pointed first at Ivan et al but eventually at Tricky Micky A.
But Emery’s appointment feels a little more like a blurry line than the clean and clear one Arteta’s appointment will bring. Some fans will always be attention grabbing, baseball cap wearing, morons who will turn on a manager in an instant, but the majority of normal people will take time to process his appointment. They’ll dissect and deliver their verdict over a period of time.
And hey, if eventually it doesn’t work, we try something different. That’s the modern game we all watch where you try and try until you succeed when it comes to appointing the right man and that is the world that Arsenal have to embrace.
The thing about Emery that I’m also ok with is that if it doesn’t look like it’s working I think the club will be swifter to make a decision than they would have been with Arteta. I think because Arteta is a young coach, a well-regarded coach, a former player and still has connections, if it really was obvious that it wasn’t working I think we’d have seen his time in the hot seat extended longer than it probably should be.
Emery’s experience and footballing CV means he doesn’t get that same leeway and as a result, his remit is clear: get us back in to the Champions League. If he does that next season it’s progress, if he doesn’t it’s failure. With Arteta I think the club would have moved those goalposts a little because of his lack of experience.
So whilst the fault lines for the fans would have been clear and divisions obvious earlier on with Arteta, I think the number of ‘lives’ he would have been given by the club is greater than Emery.
Under Arsène we had people who seemed to be more with him than the club and whilst we can all bemoan some of the things the club does sometimes, as fans we should always be behind the club ahead of any individual, whether that’s Arsène, a player, Ivan, whatever. If Unai Emery doesn’t work out then I think as fans as long as we know the club will act accordingly and try again, we have to accept that, whereas with Arteta if it was going pear-shaped and the club persisted, we’d have seen similar unpleasantness to what we saw towards the end of last season: extreme apathy in the form of a half-empty stadium.
I seem to have spent a bit of time talking about the negatives of both appointments but let me assure you, dear reader, that I am positive at the moment. We have a new dawn we are waking up to, the club appear to have made this decision swiftly, we’ll get an announcement this week, then it becomes all about shaping the squad for next season. We have a raft of players who will be back and fit for the new season because they aren’t going to the World Cup and hopefully that gives us a bit of an advantage when the 2018-19 season begins.
For me there is a lot more to be hopeful about than there is to be worried. If you want to talk like the Gary Neville’s of the world and lambast the ‘process’ then fine, crack on, but it’s done and I think what we’ve got is a very good man who could work out to be a great manager for The Arsenal.
Catch you all in the morrow.
Leave a Reply