Arsenal: When does Unai Emery project need results?

This week, Arsenal manager Unai Emery has been talking about the fine line between leading a long-term project and satisfying the desperate need for results. But when should the two align?

When Unai Emery was hired to be Arsene Wenger’s successor, a little under a year ago, Arsenal were keen to highlight that his tenure at the club would be a long-term project. This was not to be a quick-fix. Instead, the club wanted Emery to lay down foundations for the rebuilding of the team and club.

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It was always expected, therefore, that initial results would not always be positive. There was a lot of ground to make up on Premier League rivals. Expecting to win from day one would have been naive. Nevertheless, there is still the need to, at some point, gain results. Had Emery lost every game in his first season, he would have been sacked, even with the focus on the long-term prospects of the club.

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There is, then, a fine line between the project and the results. Although I have long spoken on the need to focus on the process, that process should eventually yield results. But by when should you expect that to happen? Emery, this week, has been speaking about this tension between project and results. What he had to say was extremely interesting:

"“Managers in England, more so all the time, we live as prisoners of results. I signed for three years, but there are windows that can mean that is either fulfilled or not. Halfway through the season, I commented to them, that up until now I had won (in my career), thinking that one day I would have to leave the club. And here is the only place where I win with a view to continuing a project with the club. It’s the first time that has happened to me: I feel respected and I am keen to be able to develop a project.”"

Emery talks about ‘windows’ in which his project will be ‘fulfilled or not’. These are essentially reviews where the Arsenal management will judge the progress he has made with the team and determine whether they believe that progress is enough to keep him as head coach for the coming period.

This begs the question: By what window should certain results be achieved? Does he have to achieve Champions League qualification in his first season? By when does he have to mount a title challenge? What about finishing in the top four? Or winning a trophy? Or more qualitative assessments like the improvement of players, especially young talent coming through the academy?

These are all results-based measurements that, at some point, Emery’s project must attain. To accurately judge performance by results, though, a timeframe is required. You must be able to say by when you will achieve something, and for this Emery-led Arsenal project, I am struggling to put a precise date on it.

I would suggest, maybe, that three years is a fair time to expect a significant improvement in results, which is the contract that Emery initially signed. But it is not for me to decide. This is for Arsenal and Emery to determine. But whatever they do decide, it will say a lot about whether they focus on the project or the results.