Emery’s fate was sealed by a set of Gunners fans with a taste for blood
Having accounted for Wenger, fans made laughing stock of Spaniard, writes Alyson Rudd.
UNAI EMERY thought his biggest challenge at Premier League club Arsenal would be handling the mercurial Mesut Ozil, but like a pigeon pecking obsessively at the crust of a burger bun, the Spaniard did not notice the peregrine falcon circling above his head, preparing to swoop, to really dig in its claws.
The stands at the Emirates were swarming with birds of prey, beadily watching Emery’s touchline demeanour, his tactics, his substitutions from his first day in the job. The supporters were, by the time he arrived, no ordinary set of fans. They had become empowered, politicised, all conquering. They had bayed for the blood for long-serving legend Arsene Wenger, refused to back down, hired a plane to convey their disaffection and they won. They toppled one of Europe’s most astute and revered managers.
This is not a feat anyone recovers from. Power is addictive. If you give a screaming toddler a lollipop, he’ll scream the next time he wants one. It is hard to see quite how Emery could have been a resounding success even had he defeated Chelsea in the Europa League final, even if he had avoided his current sevengame winless streak, even if he had remoulded Ozil into a effervescent goal-scoring machine.
The Emirates is a difficult place to succeed, something that the next coach will need to mull over before accepting the challenge. Patience wears thin at Arsenal faster than almost anywhere. At the first whiff of disaffection empty seats can be seen, at the first sniff of a game plan wobbling, the fans will turn, they will groan, they will jeer.
Just as there was little room for sentiment over Wenger, there was little room for indulgence for the previous 40 or 50 minutes in any single match. As soon as the opposition stirred, the fans would tut. Under Emery, Arsenal dropped 19 points after being in a winning position — but this was in part a self-fulfilling prophesy.
The Emirates is also the place reporters are most likely to be asked to become involved. The press box can be besieged with requests not for a copy of the team sheet, but to make sure we tell the world how inept a particular substitution was or how porous the defence had become.
Given that the Premier League can chew you up and spit you out in a heartbeat, to be under such open, hostile scrutiny by your own set of supporters made Emery’s tenure ludicrous.
This is a league which demands confidence that borders on either arrogance or messianic devotion. In that sense Emery joins a long list of the selfeffacing, the mumbling, the quiet and the confused. Do you remember a word that was said by Mauricio Pellegrino while manager of Southampton? Do you want to remember a word that was said by the American Bob Bradley, briefly at Swansea?
There is a reason that new Spurs boss Jose Mourinho is repeatedly labelled a ‘‘box office’’ coach. Even when struggling, even when pouting, he emanates charisma.
Emery, you might conclude, lacked sufficient charisma to keep him employed anywhere in England, let alone Arsenal, but he had personality once. While at Seville he called Mourinho, then Real Madrid coach, a cry baby. When he left PSG he spoke to Spanish journalist Marti Perarnau and displayed an acute awareness of what he would need to succeed in North London when he said: ‘‘One day, I heard Rafael Benitez say that he wasn’t able to transmit everything he wanted to say in English, and that surprised me because he was fluent in English.
‘‘Of course, one of the most important elements for a coach to succeed lies in his ability to communicate and connect with his players. On an emotional level.’’
Emery’s weekly press conferences lately became quiet affairs simply because he rarely told reporters anything worth reporting. Emery’s lack of engagement fanned the flames of derision and he clearly lost the dressing room this season as his puzzling selections and defensive game plans provoked widespread criticism.
He been temporarily replaced by Freddie Ljungberg, the former Arsenal midfielder who had worked alongside him as a firstteam coach since the summer, and the Swede’s first task is to lift his players before tomorrow’s tricky match at Norwich.
The Wolves head coach, Nuno Espı´rito Santo, has been strongly linked with the role, while Carlo Ancelotti could be another target, and it is thought the job would appeal to the Napoli manager, who was interested in taking over at Tottenham before Mourinho’s appointment last week.
Former Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri the kind of figure who would command instant kudos, while Englishman Eddie Howe’s progress at Bournemouth has not gone unnoticed.
Patience wears thin at Arsenal faster than almost anywhere. At the first whiff of disaffection empty seats can be seen, at the first sniff of a game plan wobbling, the fans will turn, they will groan, they will jeer.
THE TIMES