Unai Emery has confirmed that Arsenal were considering offering him a new deal after the end of last season.
The former coach sat down for a lengthy interview about his time at the club, speaking to journalist Guillem Balague on his YouTube channel.
Emery said despite the end to the season which saw the Gunners fail to make the top four and lose the Europa League final to Chelsea, he and the Football Executive Committee were pleased with what he had produced.
There were rumours that Raul Sanllehi was keen to provide his compatriot with new terms, and those were confirmed by the 47 year old in the interview.
“It’s true that I was very satisfied with how things went, because I believe we learned how to become a team,” he said of his first season in charge.
“At times we were a team that shone, but more a team that was effective and competitive.
“A team that in general was what we were talking about as to the reasons Arsenal signed me.
“I believe we achieved that and just needed to make the final step. I had the feeling – and so did the club – that the achievements of the previous season were valued.
“We were now looking to how we could develop together, even to the point where they were looking to offer a renewed contract.”
Emery was sacked at the end of November, as the team’s form and confidence fell, and results became unsustainable.
It felt overdue, with the club beforehand privately briefing the press about ‘noise’ and ‘external atmosphere’, but in the end the decision was made and Mikel Arteta was appointed two weeks ago.
The full interview is worth a watch below:
OT but funny. Yesterday here an article mentioned very good and insightful words by Arteta about Özil and today it is gone…
It will reappear on Tuesday evening at 10.30pm 😉
Can’t wait!
Must have been the Chinese who pulled that article.
I’m Chinese and I might have pulled that article.
Well I’m not and I didn’t.
Wenger still hasn’t said anything about behind the scenes stuff since he’s gone out of respect for the club but Unai seems to be very keen on letting anyone know what was going on. Shows you how classy Wenger is and what an exception he is in these times.
I prefer unai’s approach though just cos im curious/ inquisitive as shit.
If he’s a fan as he said why doesn’t he call the owners out. It’s still the same board. I’m still positive for Arteta but the board and directors haven’t convinced me more than the years before.
Yea but Wenger doesn’t need another managers job. Unai will be “casting light” / trying to downplay his sacking so he’s more postively framed in the minds of other, potential clubs
And this is when, Ornstein reveals, that our Technical Director Edu already conveyed his disapproval of Emery. Saying that he was never the right man right from the very beginning of his Arsenal career.
Knowing the opinion of Edu, Sanhelli the clueless idiot offered Emery contract extension.
I’m reallt glad we have Edu. He knows and loves the club. I hope he brings in more Martnilellis.
Seems like he has little real power though, will he stick around just to be a ‘yes’ man? Raul strikes me as a wheeler dealer who uses contacts with agents and other execs to get the job done, he doesn’t have any real football knowledge. This would be OK, but he’s also a power hungry egoist who needs to be at the centre of everything and have absolute power. His ruthlessness got him there and Mislintat out as the Kronkes seemed impressed by him. There is a genuine lack of football knowledge and competency at the sharp end of decision… Read more »
Well Unai move on dude and stop having digs at Wenger. What do you mean by “We started to look like a team”.. We WERE a team albeit a dysfunctional one before you joined, finished every year in CL (bar 1 or 2 seasons) … you broke the functionality even more and your mess has to be cleaned up by Arteta and co…
We were a total mess when Emery took over. He temporarily stemmed the rapid descent downwards that we were on but wasn’t able to maintain it, and ultimately probably left us worse off…..but please let’s not rewrite history – Arsene (much loved as he was) & Gazidis left behind a total shambles….there is blame twice shared around.
Let’s move on now & hope Arteta can turn things around.
No idea why I wrote ‘twice’, meant ‘to’
Were we really total shambles? Think about the squad we had when wenger left. A squad with two of the deadliest strikers in the world, a capable enough playmaker, a decentish midfield (don’t forget we had Ramsey, Iwobi still around and Torreira, Guendouzi were joining), almost a squad of young players coming through the ranks. A young hungry manager (Like Arteta or Gerrad, Lampard) would have easily made us a force in premier league but emery wasn’t even remotely capable enough for a club like arsenal. He is a Sevilla level manager, not a TOP-4 manager. Its very easy and… Read more »
We were a mess when Wenger left, but to pretend Emery did anything to improve us is simply nonsense. Within 18 months he was sacked as we were slipping towards a relegation battle which we still might be fighting this season.
It depends on how you define ‘improve’….I think he stemmed the descent somewhat in his first season. Yes, the last month of it was a disaster but if Arsene had stayed on, to think that we would have been that close to the top 4 at that point is simply nonsense too imo. It would have been a lot worse. I don’t think it was a bad first season at all given what he inherited….but once things started to go wrong he panicked completely & had no idea how to turn it around and it was 100% the right decision… Read more »
We’ll never know what would’ve happened with Wenger in charge last season, but if you want to credit Emery for ‘stemming’ the descent last season then you have to damn him for presiding over the worst Arsenal performance for half a century this season, especially after so much player investment over the summer where we smashed our transfer record.
You WOBs will never admit you were wrong. What is happening now is exactly what I predicted would happen after Wenger’s departure. We’d be much worse, much lower down the table, would stop winning trophies, etc. If Wenger had stayed, we’d have been back in the top 4 last season (third probably), and it’s harder to finish outside top 4 this season than inside – we certainly wouldn’t have been in the bottom half of the table. Fans like you are to blame for the predicament we’re in now; not Wenger, not even Emery, not the players, not the board… Read more »
You WOBs will never admit you were wrong. What is happening now is exactly what I predicted would happen after Wenger’s departure. We’d be much worse, much lower down the table, would stop winning trophies, etc. If Wenger had stayed, we’d have been back in the top 4 last season (third probably), and it’s harder to finish outside top 4 this season than inside – we certainly wouldn’t have been in the bottom half of the table. Fans like you are to blame for the predicament we’re in now; not Wenger, not even Emery, not the players, not the board… Read more »
Yawn yawn yawn Luther….
You AKBs will never admit you were wrong. What is happening now is exactly what I predicted would happen if Arsene stayed on.
(do you know how many times I have been proved 100% right & could have said this ???)
Fans like you are to blame for the predicament we’re in now; not Wenger, not even Emery, not the players, not the board it’s all YOUR fault. Let’s get our banners out saying, “Luther out – you’re killing our club”.
The total mess was the Wenger Out brigade. The twenty-two game unbeaten run saw only one convincing display. Even the win against Spurs was due to the individual brilliance of the very players who are now seen as not good enough. The damage to arsenal rests squarely on the shoulders of those fans who swallowed the nonsense that the media fed them and the spineless Board and owners. Unai Emery is responsible for the damage to the players and team. In every game he had to change his approach halfway. For eighteen months, he was not able to communicate his… Read more »
Rubbish. The owners are only interested in money, the fans in success. Wenger was finished at Arsenal and putting pressure on the owners was the only way for them to take action. They’re still snakes though.
You’re rubbish. We’re worse now, MUCH worse, than we were even in those last few years under Wenger. Just like how I predicted it.
Yeah it was Unai’s fault we fell out of the champions league in the first place. I heard he was performing dark magic on Arsene and Arsenal to make sure he got sacked so then Unai would get the job. He’s a witch! Burn ‘im!
U wot?
Dave M – you must not have heard – Emery shot JR, JFK & Mr Burns and single handedly created global warming.
I liked Wenger but so much on this thread is just pure nonsense. He wasn’t doing a good job by the end – any other club would have sacked him far earlier than we did. Emery was the wrong choice to replace him-it simply didn’t work out. However the Wenger forever crowd really needs to recognize that no top club would have allowed him to retain his job after how bad the team performed his last 18 months and what a total shambles contract management & squad building had become. Arguing that Wenger should still be in a job effectively… Read more »
I think we won 9 of 15 last games under Wenger and we didn’t even play PL anymore at 100% because we had all hopes on EL. We had a very bad season but that wouldn’t mean it would happen again next season.
When Wenger left all we had to do was to make our defense better. Now 18 months later we can hardly score a goal from an open play.
“All we had to do was make our defense better” – you could have said that pretty much since 06. We had reached a point under Wenger where we were no longer competitive (and really weren’t playing attractive football either)which is why he was ultimately sacked. We had all of our hopes in the EL basket simply because we had reached a point where we were so far off the top 4 it was our only shot at the CL.
That’s worrying to read! Personally the way we imploded last Spring and only took 1 point from 12 (before winning at Burnley when 4th Place was already lost) and capitulating in the second half in Baku, were warning signs not reasons to consider offering a new contract! ? We had 2 realistic opportunities to qualify for the Champions League but blew them both! In my opinion, Emery seemed very likeable as a person but his inability to communicate effectively in English must have hampered his effectiveness at get his ideas across as training, pre-match and at half-time. Thank you for… Read more »
Can people stop with this imploding at the end of last season nonsense!?!
At the start of last season we played a high intensity game and ran out of steam by the end but finished on 70 points. We beat Chelsea last season with a high press game, yesterday we couldn’t even maintain a high intensity game for longer than 45 minutes, let alone 38 league matches!!
We don’t have the squad to play high intensity football over the course of a 50-60 game season, are people too think to see that?!?
If you play high intensity football with a squad unsuited to it, their performance levels implode as exhaustion catches up.
It’s really not that difficult to grasp.
Nah. That might be plausible if we ever looked like a team with a method or purpose but we never did and never looked like we were going to. The early 21 game unbeaten run was a red herring
Absolutely right about the red herring. It smelled funny and wasn’t pretty to look at. We should have been hammered in several of these games, at the West Ham home game I was stunned that they weren’t at least three up and out of sight by the time we scored.
It’s not necessarily higher fitness needed for higher intensity. A lot of energy is wasted if the team isn’t pressing in sync, isn’t organised in defence and has no control Or cohesiveness over midfield. Ie us fro the past 2 years.
It leaves the team chasing shadows and unable to fit in the in-game micro-rests required to maintain intensity for the full 90.
I think it will take a while but from what love seen I think Arteta will get us there.
Well said MeSoHornsey. An educated informed response! Of course we imploded last season! To say otherwise is re-writing our season! Whether this was down to physical or mental fatigue or other issues, it was clear that something needed to change, whether it was the level and type of fitness training, player rotation to preserve player effectiveness or just the make-up of the squad. It’s a little scary that the hierarchy were considering offering a new and presumably longer contract to Emery without any potential evidence that last season’s collapse wouldn’t be repeated. Anyway, onwards & hopefully upwards! Hopefully Arteta can… Read more »
Invincibles season was a massive red herring as well, yeah?
Does everyone have to be classified as either a genius or an idiot?
People harping on about the 20 match plus run need to look a little deeper. One it involved a lot of draws. 2 there were also Mickey Mouse matches in the europa league in there. 3 we couldn’t keep a clean sheet away from home. 4 once it came to an end he couldn’t grasp a way of getting it going again. At the end of the day he got us to the final of the Europa League after beating a tough Valencia kudos to him for that, but we got hammered and outplayed in the final. This season he… Read more »
We won 7 consecutive games in the PL….currently we are struggling to find a win from anywhere. Ultimately Emery wasn’t the right guy but let’s not all start re-writing history!
Emery was let down by the FEC but I trust Arteta to have the balls not to allow that to happen to him and to hold them to account.
I imagine that Sanllehi and Emery spoke to each other in Spanish. So I bet you they had fantastic communication – and Emery’s English probably didn’t get much headroom for our good ol’Don’.
If I were to guess… Sanllehi would be looking at an unbeaten run, stability and Europa final. Tbh, without the context of the season after, it could look like a good foundation. It’s only the footballing types (Ed,u Freddie et al) that would have doubts
Must be a slow day eh. Almost the same article is literally on top of this comment box
Phew. We dodged a bullet there. it’s only first season, finished 5th place, screwin up on the last 10 games, got humiliated in the final and still they want to give him an extension… Either Raul is clueless or simply mad… On a side note, i wouldn’t mind having Raul as my CEO in my company, i can fck things up n still get my bonus and appraisal.
But Raul did NOT give him a new contract. So what’s the problem? Calling Raul “clueless or simply mad” is a ridiculous conclusion to draw from this “story”.
The only reason he didn’t get the contranct because Raul was nosz supported by this. Even Kroenkes were reluctant to give it.
How do you know? None of us are privy to those discussions, and regardless of that we have a management team. It’s not one guy dictating.
Unfortunately Raul has engineered a position for himself where he is the one guy dictating, bar when the Kronkes can be bothered to get involved.
If that’s true then why did Emery not get this new contract?
Erm, @LimpBar, someone had quoted Ornstein earlier
Emery had a pool of lethargic and mostly incompetent players to choose from. His incessant tactical chops still didn’t help. He failed to define his style, and hence his spell as head coach was marinated in uncertainty. This began to raise serious but sometimes unnecessary questions over his communication skills, his competence and his ability to motivate the squad. Eventually, the players joined the bandwagon of Emery doubters and the rest is history. What Arteta is suffering now is exactly what Emery suffered towards the latter end of last season. Emery responded with more tactical confusion and doubt. Interesting to… Read more »
Arseblog’s campaign against Raul isn’t – and won’t – let up. Fact is, no matter what anyone says or what anyone was ‘considering’ Emery was NOT given a new contract and WAS sacked.
Raul is horrible. We’ve needed Quality CB and CM more than expensive winger this past summer. What did we get? Where did he spend the money on? He had year and half to go on a spending spree that he did this past summer and he still blew it. He also did t push out players that could have been easily transferred out and add more to the budget.
Ehm, but we didn’t did we..?
Seems that the board telling the manager they were “looking to” offer a new contract is a stick to beat the board with. If they genuinely wanted to give him a new contract they would have done. But they didn’t. And then they sacked him. Really don’t see what the issue is.
Exactly. And a lot of the people who are slagging off the board for this, are the same people who themselves, at the end of last season, were saying how well Emery had done. “To even get Arsenal in with a shout of top 4 was a great achievement”. Ian Wright said, a few months into Emery’s tenure, that he could definitely see some improvement (from Wenger’s days), and one year later, he’s tweeting that Emery needs to go. Not the first time he’s got it wrong (or the second, third, fourth, ………, thousandth), yet he keeps his job with… Read more »
Can someone help- I lost stream for Devi d half yesterday . But reading on this site, why did Arteta not sub off injured Saka’ and concussed victim mustafi – e.g. brought on manvroppanos’& willock on at left back ( or then switch given withA.m.n. ) instead he subbed off ozil? Better tired ozil then injured players. Who where directly involved in Chelsea second goal ?! I lost my internet picture.
Would they, wouldn’t they, did they didn’t they… whatever. Point is they have to perform a lot better going forward than they have done so far. The introduction and contribution of Edu gives me confidence for the time being. From hereon everything must improve (so far so good despite yesterday). Onward now.
Congratulations are in order though. Four consecutive defeats at home to break a record that has stood since 1959 is some achievement in incompetence. Messr’s Emery, Sanllehi and Edu should be rightly proud of building the worst Arsenal team in over sixty years. Emery is gone and no doubt has shouldered most of the blame for this but Sanllehi and Edu should feel mightily lucky to be still gainfully employed, especially as the signings of Pepe, Tierney, Luiz and Saliba were on their say so (more Sanllehi than Edu it must be said) and not Emery’s Best of luck to… Read more »
What a load of bollocks!!!
How they can be blamed for not fixing 15 years of squad degradation in 18 months is ridiculous. There’s a reason some of us wanted Wenger gone for ten years and this is why, because he was tearing the guts out of the club and we knew it was going to take several years to fix!!
Not news. It would have been best had he been able to turn things around. Of course they would have gave him a new contract. BUT they would have likely waited to review things closer to end of season and he would have had to deliver at very least CL spot. He’s a decent manager Unai with good achievements. He started his tenure with us well and made timely/effective substitutions, got us going better. BUT it got unhinged this season. AND primarily we (Sanlehi) failed to address certain long standing issues in the squad not least at Cback preferring to… Read more »
…over to you Sanlehi.
his summary of the time at arsenal and how they were progressing is embarrassingly inaccurate. head in sand. thank god he’s off.