‘UNAI WAS NO.1 CHOICE FOR US ALL’

IVAN GAZIDIS claimed Arsenal’s three decision makers staged a secret envelope vote – and they all went for Unai Emery. Chief executive Gazidis was anxious to stress they were unanimous in their support for Emery, rather than Mikel Arteta, who had been the favourite throughout the selection process. But Gazidis revealed he devised a novel plan with head of football operations Raul Sanllehi and head of recruitment Sven Mislintat, after three weeks of whittling down an eight-man shortlist, before making a decision last weekend. “All the way through the process, Raul, Sven and I spoke to each other as little as possible,” said Gazidis (above, with Emery looking at a picture of former Arsenal boss Herbert Chapman). “Because we didn’t want to pollute each other’s viewpoints from the discussions we had had. “We wanted to come to the discussion fresh when we had been through all eight of the final candidates. We narrowed it down to three. We spent an entire day discussing g among those three. “At the end of the day, three of us all wrote on a piece of paper, 1,2, 3, and put them into the middle of the table. And the choices were all 1, 2, 3 the same. And Unai was at the top of all of our lists.” Gazidis said Arsenal began the interview process on April 25, did the last one on May 15, and Emery presented a 100-page dossier on players and coaching, and even went into detail on some of the club’s promising academy players. Emery met with Arsenal’s three decision makers, then old-school board members Sir Chips Keswick and Lord Harris, before flying to Atlanta on Tuesday to meet majority shareholder Stan Kroenke and his son, Josh. Gazidis said: “We believe there is no position in world football more attractive than Arsenal Football Club. “I think the thing that distinguishes Unai above all of that, above all the process and the things you can read about him, was the chemistry between us and the feeling for football in the room. “Unai has an energy, a passionate, competitive energy. It is this combination of detail, hard work, passion, a love for football, and a will to win that made us feel this fit was exactly right for Arsenal, and exactly right for the people at the club.”