Arsenal: Unai Emery Vs Mikel Arteta – The problem is perception

Arsenal veered away from their plans to hire Mikel Arteta as Arsene Wenger’s successor and towards Unai Emery. The decision has been largely criticised and met with an underwhelming feel by the fans. The problem, though, is a perception issue.

It was quite the U-turn. At about 7:00 AM UK time on Monday, Arsenal were hiring Mikel Arteta. 12 hours later, the first shoots of news that they were hiring Unai Emery began to surface. It really was a bolt from the blue.

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No one even mentioned the name of Emery as a possible appointment until this weekend. It wasn’t really a consideration. And then, all of a sudden, he’s the next manager of Arsenal football club, the first one to dive into the post-Arsene Wenger era.

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The initial reaction has not been all too positive. I myself am very underwhelmed by the decision, especially as Ivan Gazidis pledged that the club would be ‘bold’ in their selection. This felt anything but. And not only was it the safer, more conservative, Allardycian avenue, but they had what many saw as the perfect, culture-changing, revolutionary risk in their hands. And they squandered it.

However, it would not be fair to say that all of the reaction to the decision has been negative. There have been some fans who have highlighted what they see as the necessary managerial experience of Emery as a key advantage over Arteta, hailing his work at Sevilla where he worked under an extremely tight budget and delivered three straight Europa League victories. And the contrast in response, I believe, can be put down to perspective.

The reason why I was more disappointed with Emery than many others is that I loved the risk of Arteta. Admittedly, it was a rather huge roll of the dice and I can understand why some were more tentative to pluck for such a youthful and inexperienced option, but I was quite happy for the club to take a punt on an individual of Arteta’s reported capabilities.

Contrastingly, those who were not so enamoured with Arteta’s potential and wanted a safer, higher-floor option were far more receptive to the Emery switch. And this for me, is why there is such division in the response to the appointment: the two leading candidates were completely and utterly different in style, background, context, experience, potential. The problem, then, is a perception one.

Take my distaste of the Emery decision. It is fuelled, in large part, because of my favouritism in Arteta and the youthful, exuberant risk that he is. It is because of my perspective of what I wanted to see in Arsenal’s next manager, things that are not necessarily embodied by Emery.

Next: Arsenal: 3 things that Unai Emery will offer

This, then, is a perspective, not talent, problem. Emery has a perfectly adequate record to stake a claim for such a job. And yet, because of my perspective on what I wanted, I find myself disappointed. And the very opposite is true. Simply, Arteta and Emery are so very different, and so, therefore, is the response.