Arsenal: Gary Neville nails the whole point of Unai Emery

On Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Gary Neville defended Unai Emery, the style he is trying to implement and the time that it will take for Arsenal to execute it. The excellent pundit absolutely nailed it.

Arsenal ‘sacked’ Arsene Wenger. I’m aware that Wenger officially resigned, but this was very much a case of being asked to resign, rather than a willing departure. They did that because they wanted to go in a new direction with a new manager who had a very specific style that could revolutionise the team and lead it back to challenging for titles and trophies.

Catch the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal podcast right here

The manager they asked to implement this new era was Unai Emery. The Spaniard’s detailed research, extensive knowledge and acute understanding of the game, and of a squad that he had never worked with before, impressed Ivan Gazidis during the interview process. He was a man with a plan, a clear and defined strategy, a set of philosophies and tactics that were unwavering, uncompromisable. It is these that Gazidis put his faith in.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

And so, after just two games against the last two champions of English football, it seems a little rash to be criticising Emery for his work. Some have argued that he should adapt his style to the lesser players that he is working with; others claim that he has been naive to not play a little more pragmatically against two very good teams. But such critique misses the point. Emery is not at Arsenal to adapt to the club; he is here for Arsenal to adapt to him.

That is the point that Gary Neville makes on Sky Sports’ brilliant Monday Night Football program. In a somewhat heated debated with Jamie Carragher, which you can see here, Neville argues that Emery should not be the one to adapt, but rather that the players already at the club are the ones who should adapt to him and take on this new, modern, progressive approach:

"“I think it’s ignorant to suggest he has to adapt. He has had six weeks to work. Unai Emery has been a coach for 10 years and has been successful. He has his idea and the players have to adapt to him. He has to find out over this first season which players can adapt to him and which players can’t. Of course, he will lose games. In the first season, there will be some pain for Arsenal in this transition they are going through. I think it’s dangerous to adapt.”"

Neville is absolutely spot on. Emery is not like a normal managerial appointment lower down the Premier League where his task is to get results as quickly as possible. This is not a short-term project. It never was. And Gazidis and the club never thought it would be. As such, these early losses are not concerning. They are simply a part of the learning, developing, and improving process.

Neville later points out that Arsenal should simply be aiming to progress in Emery’s first year, stating that even if they finish fifth or sixth but are in better shape than they were at the start of the season, then that would be a successful start to the year. He then goes on to say that after two or three years, that is when titles should be challenged for and Emery’s work can properly be judged.

And that is the whole point of Unai Emery. A long-term project that will change the very culture of the club. He is not here to get results quickly and steady the ship. He is here to rebuild the ship, and that will take time, patience, resilience, and a clear, well-defined, certain, unadaptable vision.