Arsenal and Unai Emery: If he is good enough for Neymar…

Neymar has provided a glowing report on Unai Emery from working with the Spanish coach at Paris Saint-Germain. If the Arsenal head coach is good enough for Neymar, then he is good enough for me.

It is too early to say whether Unai Emery is a good head coach at Arsenal or not. He has been at the club for less than six months, his first season at the helm is not even three months old, and he is still managing players that could well not be a part of his plans in the foreseeable future. He simply has not had the time to mould this team into his own image.

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Until that is the case, it is not fair to judge his work at London Colney. It would be like tasting a stew before the meat has been cooked. Of course it isn’t going to taste very nice.

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But it is comforting when former players are supportive of his coaching and management style. And there are perhaps no players that offer more weight with their opinion than Neymar, arguably the best player that Emery has ever coached at any team. Speaking prior to Brazil’s friendly against Uruguay, Neymar had this to say about Emery:

"“Arsenal are playing really great football. They are coming from a great run in recent matches and everybody knows he’s [Emery] a really great coach. We know about their quality. I was really happy to work with him because he’s a really hard working guy. He really wanted to coach us and really wanted to study about football. I think he will bring good things for Arsenal, which is a really huge and important club here in England. I wish him luck.”"

Now, there were reports that Neymar and Emery were not especially friendly as PSG, with Neymar tending to coach the team thanks to his power as the world-record signing; Emery was forced to bow to the Brazilian’s every want with the Qatari Sports Investments backing their biggest asset, not their head coach.

And it was reported that Neymar was not a huge fan of Emery’s obsession with video analysis, his intense attention to detail, and his relentless work rate, something that Neymar did not share himself. That said, PSG still enjoyed great success under Emery, with Neymar a key part of that.

These comments also indicate that the coaching methods of Emery, while a little frustrating at times, are successful ones. Admittedly, this comes in a public press conference and Neymar is hardly going to slag off the manager of the team at the stadium at which he will imminently play in. But there is no need for him to be so bullish in his praise for his former coach.

It still remains to be seen whether Emery will be successful at Arsenal. But the good start, along with Neymar’s positive testimony, has bought him time and patience.