Stars could follow Emery out the door
However bad things seem right now at Arsenal, they may yet get worse.
The decision to dismiss Unai Emery as manager feels like the right one. The Spaniard is undoubtedly a talented coach and will prosper again but the longer he spent in the Premier League the more uncomfortable he looked and sounded.
The worry for Arsenal now is that their best players will follow him out of the door.
Arsene Wenger did not leave a balanced squad when he finally stepped down in the summer of 2018.
To rebuild and reshape Arsenal was one of the challenges facing Emery and the clubs recruitment team and it has proved beyond them.
But Wenger did leave behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexanadre Lacazette, two of the most gifted and exciting forward players in the Premier League.
Aubameyang is undoubtedly the greater talent, a player good enough to play in any team in Europe.
Lacazette can be dangerous too, though, and it says much for the sheer lack of direction and quality around them that a team with these two available to it has fared so dismally in recent times.
Aubameyang is 30 while Lacazette is two years younger. So they are not young for forwards. They are in their prime but may not be for long.
So it is not hard to see where this is going. Both men are well under contract but have not yet indicated that they wish to sign extensions and why would they?
The vision of the club sold to them by Wenger when they arrived in the summer of 2017 (Lacazette) and January 2018 (Aubameyang) was undoubtedly a little different to what has transpired to be the sobering reality of life in north London.
Wenger told both that their future would be built around silverware and glory, not scoring late goals to get a point at home to Southampton, losing to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League on a Thursday night when most of the fanbase went Christmas shopping.
But it is Lacazette and Aubameyang who Arsenal should be worried about now. There will be suitors in January and they will be back again next summer.
Arsenal feel and look weak these days and the bigger clubs will smell their blood.
Now, with Emery gone, the Arsenal board have to make the right decision in terms of a replacement.
The Arsenal squad is a largely dysfunctional one. Just as it did in Wengers later years, it lacks players of real substance and quality.
You may say that this Arsenal team doesnt have much. But take Aubameyang and Lacazette out of it, and it really does have nothing at all.