Arsenal: Unai Emery understands the youth expectation

Unai Emery has hailed the influence of last season’s under 23 manager Freddie Ljungberg since his promotion into a first-team coaching role. The Arsenal head coach understands the expectation of youth at the club.

Clubs have their own characteristics. Liverpool are renowned for their European nights and Anfield atmosphere. Manchester United pride themselves on wide, expansive attacking football. Real Madrid have their Galacticos; Juventus have their defence. Spurs are famous for their bottling.

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At Arsenal, their personality is very much tied to the development and use of young players. While many other teams will espouse their intention to bleed their academy talent into their first team, very few actually act on it. But the Gunners are different.

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This character trait was key in selecting Unai Emery as the successor to Arsene Wenger as the new head coach of the team last summer. Ivan Gazidis spoke at length about the importance of maximising London Hale End and he believed Emery was the right man to do precisely that. And this summer, in the opening week of his second pre-season at the club, it seems as though Emery is committed to the cause.

He fielded an extremely young team against the Colorado Rapids, handing first senior appearances to four players, two of which played the anchoring midfield positions. He then threw on the youngsters to great effect in the second half against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night. After the 2-1 victory over the German champions, in which 20-year-old Eddie Nketiah scored the winner, Emery spoke about how influential the hiring of last season’s under 23 manager Freddie Ljungberg has been as one of the first-team coaches:

"“We worked last year with Steve [Bould], with Freddie with the under-23s and we changed because for them it was a good option. With Freddie we are working. Above all he is helping us with the young players because he knows better than us every young player. For example with Robbie – I did not know Robbie. Freddie said to me that he is a good player with the capacity to play as a six or an eight. He [Ljungberg] has helped us like we needed with the young players every day. Our responsibility in this club for the history, present and future is to give young players a chance. If they deserve minutes they’ll get minutes. I am very happy with them and their work.”"

The coaching reshuffle that essentially saw Steve Bould and Ljungberg swap roles clearly illustrated Emery’s desire to utilise a current crop of young players that is one of the brightest and most talented in recent memory.

The move came with an official announcement that a ‘transition team’ would be assembled, comprised by first-team and youth coaches specifically looking at players between the ages of 18 and 21 and their progression from academy graduate to first-team regular.

Emery understands the character of Arsenal football club. There is an expectation that he works with and maximises the young players that he has inherited from the academy. And so far, he is meeting it.