Arsenal: Bacary Sagna says what we all feared

Bacary Sagna has confirmed what all Arsenal fans feared to be true: the team was too nice; he then gives some advice to Unai Emery: demand attitude.

Even if they didn’t want to believe it, I think all Arsenal fans knew that their team was ‘too nice’. They may have shown commitment and resolve every now and then, but they were fleeting anomalies, rather than symptoms of a culture that instilled it as the norm.

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And while the current players would always insist that they were fighting for one another, and while Arsene Wenger would relentlessly claim that his players had character, and was very quick to say so after any game remotely hinted at such, few actually believed them with any sense of depth.

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That fear has now been realised. In a brilliant interview with James Benge of the London Evening Standard, Bacary Sagna has labelled his former team as ‘too nice’ while giving advice to new Head Coach, Unai Emery, who, according to Sagna, will need to bring an attitude to the dressing room that has previously been missing:

"“The team is and was too nice. They never liked to argue. We were just too nice to each other, we were like friends. They definitely need some leadership. Every single team has players with good influence. I’m not talking about quality and skills, I’m talking about behaviour and attitude. When you have winners in your team it’s really important: they’re the ones talking when you’re in trouble, waking players up. You need some players like this. Emery asks a lot, he’s very demanding but he can get what he wants. Some of that team are young, they want to learn and be successful. He will bring some discipline to Arsenal.”"

Sagan isn’t really saying anything that is all that surprising, let’s be honest here. While I always wanted to believe otherwise, and often allowed myself to believe otherwise, it was quite clear that Arsenal lacked characters willing to challenge others when necessary.

And that lacking has only worsened in recent years. Per Mertesacker has retired, Laurent Koscielny is out injured for the next six months at least, while Gabriel Paulista, another fiery figure has also departed and Jack Wilshere’s contract expires at the end of the month. Who, in this current squad, would you expect to stand up and challenge a teammate if something was going wrong that needed to be challenged?

It is this that Sagna is referring to. That is why the signing of Stephan Lichtsteiner is so pivotal. This is a player who has won seven straight Serie A titles, is renowned for his encouragement and constructive criticism in the dressing room, and is currently captaining the Swiss national team at the World Cup.

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Alongside providing a defensive balance to the team, this, I believe, is Emery’s most important task of his first season or two in north London. Arsenal, as Sagna says, are ‘too nice’. It’s up to Emery to change that.