Arsenal: Lack of a target a good thing

Both Unai Emery and Ivan Gazidis evaded questions of a target in the introductory press conference on Wednesday. The lack of one is a good thing for Arsenal.

Season targets rarely help. Every team wants to win, so why state as much in a meaningless press conference? And then, when such aims are publicly proclaimed, the scrutiny comes, both in the validity of the protestations and then in the results that follow. Targets set clubs up to fail.

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Ivan Gazidis and Unai Emery, in the latter’s introductory press conference as new Arsenal manager on Wednesday afternoon, were clearly aware of that fact. Neither would be drawn on specific, testable targets, other than the generally vague commenting of wanting to compete and be the best in England and the world.

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In fact, both men spoke more on the process, than the result. This is Gazidis:

"“The ambition is to be in a position to be a candidate to win the biggest trophies in England and the biggest trophies across Europe. We’ve got to understand that that’s not just going to be done in one leap. It’s the result of focus, hard work, discipline, energy, commitment, will to win. That’s what we need to do.”"

And this is Emery:

"“I don’t promise today we will win, but I can promise you that we will work hard, we will together and we will work with emotion, with demands to find all the results.”"

Neither man was willing to give a clear and irrefutable target for the season ahead. Martin Keown, though, in his column for the Daily Mail, was more specific in what he sees as success for the Gunners this season:

"“[Emery has] been brought in to get the club back in the top four. To do so would be an amazing achievement. Trying to win the Europa League has to be on the radar again.”"

I am not quite sure what Arsenal’s targets for the year ahead should be. If you offered a place in the top four now, I would probably take it, with or without a trophy. If you offered me a Europa League win and a backdoor into the Champions League the season after, I would probably take it. But I am still not sure what constitutes success or not.

However, I am certain that Gazidis and Emery do, even if they are not willing to publicly embellish such discussion. Because, by discussing them in public, the club provides the media and the fans with a target, a measurement by which everything can be judged. And when it comes to a long-term, rebuilding project like this one, such short-termism is rarely helpful.

Next: Arsenal: 3 players who could flourish under Unai Emery

Gazidis and Emery, then, have been clever to not give away their targets, not that they were ever going to. Progress, for now, is the name of the game, even if we do not know what that looks like. It is a question of process, not results, and that’s alright with me.