Arsenal: Following Unai Emery transfer model key to future success

For all his faults, Unai Emery’s transfer business during his tenure at Arsenal is a venture characterized by success. He offloaded dead wood, strengthened positions of need, and most of all, discovered some of the world’s most exciting young talents. Arteta should look to continue what his countryman started.

To hear some tell it, Unai Emery was the worst manager in the world from the time of his hiring to the time of his firing from Arsenal football club. According to others, the Spaniard was a hero, maligned by his club, ignored by his players, and does not deserve the amount of flak he receives. My views are somewhere in the middle; he was a troubling tactician and inconsistent coach, but one area where he found real success was in the transfer market.

Listen to the latest Episode of the Pain In The Arsenal Podcast here!—The Rebuild 2.0

One of his specialties was ridding the club of dead wood. Mohammed Elneny, Jack Wilshire, Takuma Asano, Chuba Akpom, Lucas Perez, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Laurent Koscielny all left the club under his tenure.

He also managed the astute sale of Alex Iwobi to Everton, for a sweet 36 million. Iwobi peaked early on in his North London career, and his value never really got past its selling point. Good business all around.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

He also had a knack for spotting good deals when it came to spotting positions of need. Stephan Lichtsteiner never really came to fruition, but it was a fantastic idea. The same goes for Denis Suarez: the Spaniard is a consummate creator when healthy. He simply wasn’t ever healthy. The twin stopgaps of Sokratis and David Luiz are finally showing their quality, and have both exceeded my expectations of their abilities.

And of the impact players he has brought in, who does not deserve to start? Lucas Torreira, Kieran Tierney, Nicolas Pépé, Dani Ceballos, and Bernd Leno are all of extreme quality, and have performed well for Arsenal. Enough said there.

But the place where Emery really found success is his pursuit of young players. He had his eye on Matteo Guendouzi from his time at PSG, and since arriving, the flame-haired midfielder has been generally excellent. Emery used his French connections to bring a midfielder now worth about ten times his original value out of obscurity. The Frenchman was a Golden Boy finalist for goodness sakes.

And even more exciting than that is the meteoric rise of Gabriel Martinelli. Emery and the Arsenal board brought in Edu as the technical director for a number of reasons, one of which being that the Brazilian is an expert in his native country’s market. And lo and behold, here comes Gabriel Martinelli, an unknown, 18-year-old kid who might just be Arsenal’s Player of the Season.

I’ve waxed lyrical about the young forward recently, so I don’t feel I need to go into all of his accomplishments at Arsenal. Needless to say, though, he’s a superstar, and one of my favorite players in the squad.

And the final thing Emery did, to cap off all of this business, is give us a gift. Since the start of last season, Arsenal are the youngest squad in the league. Meaning our squad has a lot of untapped potential just waiting to grow and branch into the next generation of stars. And while Emery is absolutely not the man to manage them, he gave them a future.

Martinelli a superstar for unexpected reasons. dark. Next

Unai Emery will never be our new scouting director. He honestly was not the right man for the Arsenal job, and I’m shocked he lasted as long as he did. But behind the scenes, he actually provided Mikel Arteta with a very solid foundation to rebuild this club. Let’s hope his countryman follows in his footsteps, especially when it comes to transfers. Because recreating Emery’s transfer success is no mean feat.

Home/Arsenal News