Arsenal: Unai Emery barking up the wrong tree with calls for patience
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal manager Unai Emery has called for patience from fans. That’s cute and all, but he clearly underestimates the vileness of the people he’s speaking to.
Arsenal made a calculated decision in hiring Unai Emery two summers ago. It was never going to be easy moving on from Arsene Wenger, but Emery had a lot of the same strengths as Wenger while also upgrading on some of his weaknesses. Or at least that’s what it seemed like.
Now, it’s starting to look like Emery’s weaknesses are even more glaring than Wenger’s were. For instance, Emery can’t seem to make decisions himself. He turns to the players to help him make it. He doesn’t always seem to grasp the tactical side of things. He can’t figure out how to play cohesive attacking football.
All problems. But still the board backs him and knowing that, he has asked the fans for patience following another puke-inducing loss to Leicester City.
Patience. Something Arsenal fans haven’t had since like… 1982. There is no such thing as patience for an Arsenal fan. They have demanded instantaneous results for the past two decades.
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They ran Wenger out of the club because they didn’t have patience. They harass players while they acclimate because they don’t have patience. There is no patience to be had. So there’s absolutely no use in asking for it.
That doesn’t mean that Unai Emery doesn’t have a point. I mean, do we really want to see this club do the same thing that so many others are doing? Do we really want to jump from manager to manager in the hopes of finding a spark of success that is in no way sustainable? Or do we want to build something for the long-term like Arsene Wenger did?
I completely understand why Emery thinks patience is key, and honestly, after seeing how much he changed things up against Leicester City (personnel-wise, mainly), I am more inclined than ever to give him that call for patience. But most fans won’t be. They see a ridiculously capable club getting canned 1-0 to Sheffield United, 2-0 to Leicester City, and failing to see out leads against lesser opponents.
That is not something that will breed patience.
It’s never a good thing when you look worse your second year than your first. At least in the first year Emery could call it growing pains. This year he’s been far less inclined to make changes, and thus fans will be far less inclined to be patient.