Arsenal: Was Unai Emery overpowered, or did he lie?

Unai Emery made some pretty clear statements about Calum Chambers at Arsenal this summer, so why has what he said not come to pass?

Arsenal have actually gone and loaned Calum Chambers to Fulham for the year, which, at this juncture, seems to hint that his future at the club is muddled at best. He was expected to play a big role at the club this year given how well he did last year, but things have changed.

The loan move leaves the Gunners a bit short-staffed on the defense, and we have to wonder if this means someone else is coming into the fold.

What makes this loan move particularly odd is the environment in which it was formed. As mentioned, Chambers did quite well last year. We all saw it. We saw the improvements and we all thought that he had a bright future at the club, probably in the starting XI, or at least with a chance to earn that spot in the starting XI.

But what makes it more odd is the fact that he had literally just signed a new contract which, after having signed, prompted Unai Emery to say that Chambers would play a “big part in his plans for the season.”

I’m willing to bet a significant amount of cash money that the big part Chambers was going to play wasn’t meant to be on loan to Fulham.

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Which means one of two things – either Emery was caught in a lie, or Emery was overpowered by higher forces within the club.

I hate to bring this back up, but there were times when Arsene Wenger was caught in a similar situation, promising a player would absolutely not be sold, only to then sell them months, weeks, hell, even days later. It always left us fans feeling a bit jaded. Like we were being taken for a ride.

I don’t think that’s what happened with Emery. At least I really don’t want to think that’s what happened, and since this is the first time, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

What seems more likely is that he was overruled, for whatever reason, by someone higher up in the club, maybe Gazidis. We knew that Emery wouldn’t have transfer vetoing power, or at least we could deduce that, because apparently Mikel Arteta wanted that power and was denied it.

Meaning that Emery probably did have big plans for Chambers, the plans that we were so excited to see, until the lad was loaned out from under Emery’s nose.

Whatever the case, I don’t like it. And I’m not alone on that.