Arsenal: There’s playing the long game, then there’s this

Arsenal have every right to take their time in improving, but there’s a difference between playing the long game and watching whatever this is.

The verdict has been delivered. Arsenal will be sticking with Unai Emery. They are 100% behind him. Maybe this comes down to the financial implications, maybe it’s a club that doesn’t want to get involved in the coaching carousel that so many Premier League teams struggle with these days. Who knows.

All we know is that Emery probably won’t be fired any time soon. On the one hand, there is a part of me that wants to understand. On the other, I see this club looking as flat as a piece of paper (before origami).

There will always be similarities drawn to Jurgen Klopp. It’s impossible to ignore. And there’s some credence in that it did take Klopp some time. But the big difference here is that, as I’m sure you’ve heard before, with Klopp, there was a clear and constant understanding of where the club was going.

There’s a difference between playing the long game and just expecting that things will change at some point without any proof that they will do so.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Unai Emery has given us no real reason to believe that things are changing. Honestly, not to be pessimistic, the one good thing I’ve seen from him is a promise of youth. Matteo Guendouzi, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka (just to name a few) have been constant presences in Emery’s plans, which is amazing to see. I don’t think even Wenger would have given them this much time.

But his man management with senior players has been awful. Granit Xhaka, Mesut Ozil, even Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all have cause for grievances against the manager and rather than take control, he hands it off to the players to handle themselves. Maybe it seems like a good idea, but it’s not. He is shirking a primary part of his job,

The only other upside I could see to this is that the players who get shoved aside aren’t Emery players. They’ve been there already. They weren’t players he signed. So if you really have to play the long game, at the very least, you can know that eventually he will drive all other players out of the club. Maybe then we can move forward.

As for me and many others, I’m not willing to wait that long without any sign that it will actually improve things.