Unai Emery says he’s keen to build a winning project at Arsenal, and that he feels respected the club’s hierarchy after his appointment last May.
The Spaniard stepped into the big shoes of Arsene Wenger who had spent 22 years in charge, and while he’s not expecting to stay anywhere near that length of time, he is keen to spend time in North London as the Arsenal rebuild continues.
The Gunners have a European final to contend with next week, with Emery’s track record in the Europa League one of the factors in his appointment.
He understands the pressure of having to achieve results, but sounded confident of the board’s faith in him.
“Managers in England, more so all the time, we live as prisoners of results,” he told Cadena SER.
“I signed for three years, but there are windows that can mean that is either fulfilled or not.
“Here is the only place where I win with a view to continuing a project with the club.
‘It’s the first time that has happened to me: I feel respected and I am keen to be able to develop a project.
“Coaches, in the end, are where they want us. Not very often do we decide where to go. I was lucky enough to substitute Arsene Wenger.
“It will be impossible to be here for as long as he was, because I think that long spells in football have ended.
“In England, the figure of a manager is highly respected, but it also has high demands.”
Speaking yesterday, the club’s Managing Director Vinai Venkatesham made it clear the club were happy with Emery’s performance, despite the fact we didn’t manage to secure a top four position.
“If you boiled it down to two objectives, they would be, one – to successfully integrate Unai and his coaching staff into Arsenal and the second, as challenging as we knew it would be, to qualify for the Champions League,” he said.
“If you assess our season against those two objectives, with Unai the best way to assess that is: if we went back in time, would we make the same decision?
“I can say, absolutely, 100%, categorically, we would have appointed Unai again. We’re really pleased with the impact he’s having at Arsenal and we’re delighted with his appointment.”
I really hope Emery is given time to build something, we’re not going to be given the type of funds we need to produce instant success, and I think whoever our manager is? Will require time to sort this squad out.
Our squad is bursting with overpaid players of insufficient quality, it’s also lacking in balance, I think Emery will need 2 more seasons to mould this squad in his own image, and will also need good scouting to get us on the right track.
I don’t see what benefits there are from having a revolving door of managers.
This is correct. The fact that two people have thumbed it down already shows that there is – still – totally unrealistic expectations out there. Any new Manager has to be given time, unless the fit is a failure from the Go. We have improved 7 points and one place. If we repeat that next season, it would surely constitute success. We have almost no hope of challenging for the title for the next two seasons. It’s about incremental improvements with limited – very limited – budget. I read today that City will activate a £61 million pound release clause… Read more »
Did you not notice the capitulation at the end of the season?
Yes of course I did. But what is the alternative ? Who is going to come in ? Who will do better. ? Maybe Howe or Dyche ? But they could also do a lot worse ? Or more like – barely the same ?
Unless we find a Manager who also happens to be a billionaire with a penchant for putting his own money into the squad, we have little choice but to stick with Emery.
Dick Emery…
But, more seriously, a decent first season only marred by the weak run at the end.
Marred? It was an embarrassment.
I wouldn’t feel respected if I was offered a mere 40m summer budget.
but hey…
Vinay likes Unai, and Unai likes Vinay.
We have our Arsenal back !
What’s the deal with the word project being thrown around a lot?
Big transfer window coming up with the biggest game of our season next week.
you sure will be getting a lot more respect once you win the UEFA cup! that’s your specialty too, so win it!
Ben chilwell, diogo joto, scott dann, harry maguire, get 3 of these would help, we obviously need more compactness, we were unlucky Bellerin/holding injuries when they were playing well, offloads = Miki, mustafi, lichsteiner, ozil, Elneny, chambers, and sorry to say as I so like the fella jenkinson.
We’ll see how it pans out after the result in 8 days time. Personally, I think blowing 4th was a travesty.
I think performances can give hope for the future and forgive results. If we can play well and deserve to win but still lose, people would be more hopeful of better results coming, but losing and deserving to lose will always bring the most extreme of negative reactions from those who are emotionally invested in the club.
A manager can’t control results, but he is able to give us performances, and so far he hasn’t. Unfortunately, I have been feeling like he never will.
At the end of the day he is one year into a three year contract which hasn’t been renewed. This happened with Wenger and Gaz and the board delayed the decision going into the final year of the contract. If this repeats then it will be a very sad day for the club. Sounds like Unai is saying he is happy the club are saying he is doing a good job but ‘there are windows’. I think he has enough experience to know to jump ship, which isn’t good for us. As he seems to be the manager we need… Read more »