Arsenal: How much of this is Unai Emery actually doing?

Arsenal have been active this summer in the best way possible, but how much has been Unai Emery and how much hasn’t been?

This is a question I’ve never had to ask in regards to our beloved Arsenal Football Club – who is actually making these transfers?

For so many years, it was Arsene Wenger and only Arsene Wenger, for better (Cesc Fabregas) or worse (Yaya Sanogo). There was never any doubt about it. With most other clubs, there is a general understanding of who gets stuff done.

Going back as far as last summer, Wenger’s influence was supposedly diminishing. We knew he wanted Alexandre Lacazette, so that was no great surprise, but when the January window rolled around, it felt very much so out of his hands.

These weren’t Wenger-like signings, and the sales weren’t Wenger-like sales. It looked as though transfer duties had shifted away from Wenger and into the hands of the brain trust: Ivan Gazidis, Sven Mislintat, Raul Sanllehi (after February) and probably a few more.

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Now that Unai Emery is here, has anything changed? It was rumored that Mikel Arteta’s appointment fell through because he wanted transfer vetoing power. That was never verified and it likely never will be. But it would stand to reason that if that is what cost Arteta the job, then Unai Emery likely doesn’t have that right either.

Not that he would have vetoed any of these deals anyway. They’ve been pretty indisputable so far.

Still, I am curious just how much Unai Emery has been involved in the whole building of “his era.” Needless to say he had a big part to play in Jack Wilshere’s leaving, but in terms of who came, none of these deals feel like something he would be in on. Again though, it’s not like he would be opposed to them,

Yacine Adli was obviously his thing, but that fell through. Bernd Leno and Sokratis are both Sven Mislintat’s thing.

If you get down to it, it doesn’t matter all that much. Not yet, at least. It remains to see how he will handle his new digs when the season starts but, ideally, he will be able to trust the people that are in charge of these transfers to get him the players he wants/needs.

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Which is hopefully all of the players we have already been getting. It’s more a curiosity than anything else. At least until it becomes something else (which hopefully it doesn’t).

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