GUNNER EMERY
Former PSG manager beats Arteta to the Arsenal job
Unai EmEry is to be confirmed as the new manager of arsenal after a day of talks in London concluded with him saying yes to the role of replacing arsene Wenger.
it was revealed yesterday that Emery, 46, was emerging as a late contender for the job.
a contract for the Spanish-born former boss of Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain and Spartak moscow was being thrashed out last night by arsenal chief executive ivan Gazidis.
it is believed that Emery (right) has agreed to work under a tight transfer budget and strict controls from the board. But his promise of how he likes his teams to play is sure to excite arsenal supporters.
‘Fans want their emotions to come to the surface and the only way to make that happen is to give them a team that transmits emotion: intensity, attacking, scoring goals, competing, fighting,’ he wrote in a recent book. ‘That awakens them. The fans want emotions.’
Emery was axed from his role as PSG manager at the end of last season despite winning the league and both cups, with Thomas Tuchel taking his position at the French club.
He had earned much admiration with a vibrant brand of football that took Valencia into the Champions League before winning three consecutive Europa League trophies with Sevilla. in andalucia, Emery developed a reputation as one of Europe’s most studious coaches. He admitted to working until 2am most days before rising again within six hours to do it all over again.
at the training ground, he is demanding of himself and the players. ‘i’m not the kind of coach who says: “Let’s do a few piggy in the middle exercises and get home for lunch”,’ Emery once quipped.
as a one-on-one coach, he was respected by his players, lifting their performances even when supporters appeared to have turned against them. it may be a particularly useful skill once he encounters the rancour and angst of arsenal Fan TV. While at Sevilla, he turned around the fortunes of former arsenal winger Jose antonio reyes. ‘When i came here, the supporters said to me: “Please, don’t play reyes”. i said to him: “Jose, do you know what they’re saying about you?”. We worked on it. and now every time he goes out, the crowd chant: “reyes! reyes!”.’ along with his analysts, Emery will spend up to 12 hours working on videos. Players are loaded with information, both in the video suite at the training ground and then as a going-home present. ‘There were so many videos i ran out of popcorn,’ joked former Valencia winger Joaquin. Some may find the methods overbearing but at Sevilla it was clearly successful — and particularly so in the Europa League. as arsenal return to Europe’s second competition again next season, this might be one motivation for Gazidis. Emery, an engaging man but more coach than manager, has also shown himself to be content to work within a structure similar to the one in place at the Emirates. arsenal have hired Sven mislintat as their head of recruitment and raul Sanhelli as head of football operations. Emery will be their subordinate when it comes to transfers and he is one of very few coaches who will be content with the arrangement.
The news of Emery was met with shock from players last night, who had fully expected mikel arteta to be in charge next season.
arsenal also considered Patrick Vieira as manager and made an approach for their former captain, but that move was heavily criticised by legendary striker ian Wright.
Speaking on BBC radio 5 Live, Wright called the approach for Vieira ‘tokenism’. He said: ‘One of the saddest things was arsenal getting in touch with Patrick was tokenism. To go from arteta, who i was thinking was getting it, was fine, to approaching Patrick like that, a legend of the club like that, i think that was despicable.’
asked whether it was tokenism because he was a club legend or because he was black, Wright said: ‘i don’t know. you can choose, whichever way.’
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