Arsenal: Please stop talking about sacking Unai Emery

After Wednesday’s Europa League final loss to Chelsea, some Arsenal fans have suggested that Unai Emery should be sacked. Please stop. It’s stupid.

The Europa League final loss to Chelsea leaves Arsenal at the end of what is undoubtedly a disappointing 2018/19 season. In the first Arsene Wenger-less year in more than two decades, the club was looking to relay the foundations of what would hopefully be a successful rebuilding of culture and quality.

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A key part of that rebuild was getting back into the Champions League. After the late-season collapse in the Premier League left the Gunners on the outside of the top four, peering through a window as Chelsea and Spurs feasted with the elite of English football, the Europa League was the last-chance saloon. And Arsenal blew it.

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That has led to many fans taking a rather dramatic and what I would describe as egregious stance regarding head coach Unai Emery, the man who was tasked with leading the club out of the Wenger doldrums. In the immediate aftermath of the 4-1 humiliation, many were calling for Emery to be fired, unconvinced by his coaching abilities as the man to lead the club forward in this new era.

Before I argue why such a perspective is utterly stupid, I should admit that I too share these same concerns. I have little foundation or logic for this line of thinking, but I am not completely sure how good a coach Emery actually is. There is just a gut feeling that I have that tells me that he is a limited coach. Could he get Arsenal back in the top four? Yes, probably. But can he win a title? I am not so sure.

Nevertheless, even despite those niggling doubts, calling for his firing after one season is utterly ridiculous. It would be stupid to want any manager sacked after one season, but given the situation Emery has inherited at the Emirates, he deserves to be given even more time than usual.

The squad was painfully and substantially lacking in quality. I would suggest it is the same level as Everton’s squad apart from it has two world-class centre-forwards. There was little to no money to invest, with the club barely topping £50 million in his first summer at the helm and expected to spend similarly slim amounts this summer. And he was working against culture, something that takes years to overturn.

The problems at Arsenal are deeper-rooted than one season’s worth of new management. From the comfort level of the players and coaches to the absent distance of a disinterested owner, Emery arrived in what was a truly horrific situation. To expect him to turn that around in a year is completely foolish.

Has he made mistakes? You bet he has, especially in the last month of the season. But has there been progress? Yes, absolutely, and with what he has had to work with, that, for now, is all that can be asked of him. Perhaps next year a more frank and realistic discussion can be had, but at present, any talk of sacking Emery lacks any logic whatsoever.