Arsenal: Europa League final should not decide Unai Emery’s fate

Unai Emery has an opportunity to gain qualification to the Champions League in his first season at Arsenal in the Europa League final in late-May. His fate as manager, however, should not depend on the result.

Last May, Unai Emery was appointed as Arsene Wenger’s replacement at Arsenal. Upon arrival, it is fair to say the Spanish manager has certainly divided opinion, even since before the start of his tenure, with many fans having fallen in love with the prospect of Mikel Arteta arriving to lead the club forwards.

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From the very beginning, many supporters were in disagreement on what the expectations of the former Paris-Saint Germain boss should be. Many argued that he should be sacked and cast aside if he failed to achieve Champions League qualification after his first year with the club. However, others, including myself, merely wanted to see improvement from the lacklustre end of the Wenger era.

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And if improvement is what you are looking for, you will have found it. The Gunners have bettered last season’s result, finishing in fifth place with 70 points in comparison’s to last term’s sixth place with 63 points. Furthermore, Arsenal have also reached the final of the Europa league, rather than the semi-finals.  Therefore, in my eyes, that improvement, although marginal, earns Emery another season at the helm, no matter what the result of the Europa league final turns out to be.

This progression of the team and club comes without significant investment. In the summer transfer window, Emery brought in five players. Those players included Lucas Torreria, Sokratis, Matteo Guendouzi, Bernd Leno and Stephan Lichtsteiner. Four out of five of the players have established themselves as first-team players, despite all of them costing under £30 million pounds. Lichtsteiner is the only signing who has not grabbed a first-team role, but this was almost expected as he was brought in for free from Juventus at the ‘overly ripe’ age of 34-years-old. Not only has

Emery has made clear improvements to the squad despite having such a low budget. That shows that he is capable of adapting to difficult financial situations and working with the players that he has at his disposal, rather than simply buying new ones, which, unfortunately, will be important with Arsenal’s transfer budget hardly the most enticing.

Expecting Emery to create a team good enough to qualify for the Champions League with the budget he was given is a complete joke, especially considering the amount of money rivals have spent. The fact that the Spaniard even managed to improve the team at all is a miracle in itself.

When one takes a moment to look at how poor the squad truly is in comparison to the other sides in the top six, then and only then can one comprehend how great of an achievement improving the team was by Emery, even if it those betterments were marginal.

Emery deserves at least one more season at the helm, even if Arsenal fail to beat Chelsea in the Europa League final. Judging Emery after next season makes more sense. More time has passed to provide proper judgement. But for now, he has already done enough to keep himself in the job. Any suggestion otherwise is tosh.