Arsenal: Unai Emery and David Moyes have all of one thing in common

Arsenal are in a similar situation as Manchester United was post-Sir Alex Ferguson. but that doesn’t mean that they’re the same.

The day and age of long-tenured managers may well be over. The last two to do it were Sir Alex Ferguson with Manchester United and, of course, Arsene Wenger with Arsenal.

Without going to much into a history that most are privy to, David Moyes was called on to fill the shoes of Ferguson and it didn’t go that well. The club is still trying to recover from years of post-Fergie blues and Jose Mourinho isn’t looking like the solution either.

Whoever was going to follow up Arsene Wenger was going to face the same test, the same media coverage, and the same unrealistic expectations – continue the success of a legend, or better yet, improve on it.

It was only a matter of time, therefore, before Unai Emery was used in the same sentence as Moyes. Given the state of the media, we knew it was coming.

Unai Emery has even addressed this chatter, even though he by no means had to. Why? Because these two have next to nothing in common.

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Moyes was a long shot. He had only ever managed in England, had never won anything except for a promotion for Preston North End. If the Gunners would have gone with, say, Eddie Howe, then by all means, drag out the comparisons.

But Unai Emery and David Moyes see their similarities end in the situations that they inherited. That’s it.

Because Emery has done so, so much more. He has managed massive egos, like Neymar. He has won major trophies like Ligue 1 and the Europa League. He has worked with infinite budgets at PSG and he has worked with smaller budgets at Sevilla.

He has experience enough to make this appointment far from a “stretch.” Not exactly typical, maybe, but definitely not out of the blue.

We are already getting a taste for what Emery is doing. He isn’t trying to carry on where Wenger left off. He is trying to improve upon what Wenger was trying to do. And we are seeing that already. We are seeing training sessions like we’ve never seen before. We are seeing players getting excited like never before.

Next: Arsenal Complete 2017/18 Player Ratings

This isn’t a hail Mary. This isn’t a cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best. This is a solid investment into the future of the club.

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