If Unai Emery had stayed? Where would we be now if Unai Emery wasn’t forced out by fans frustrated by an unpopular manager? His stuttering attempts at English became an excuse for comedic jeering, his frantic antics on the sidelines as he worked as an orchestral conductor, manically trying to tell players what to do and how to do it, was a source of annoyance and a distinct counterpart to his predecessor, Arsene Wenger ( who while animated, believed in allowing players express themselves) which all combined to make him unpopular with the fans. With no Arsenal connection. He was not given a true chance to mould Arsenal in his way and we will never know what the outcome would have been if he had been given that chance. Was it really necessary to make fun of a man trying to learn something new? However, logically, we can make some assumptions. If given the power to fix the team which Arteta was given, it seems likely that we would have major trophies by now. His teams have always overperformed and garnered plenty of trophies despite being underdogs. He works well with players who trust him and don’t try to undermine him as senior Arsenal players did with him, and Arteta when he took over. He is good with young players and gave Arsenal starts to Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Ainsley Maitland Niles, Charlie Patino and Ben Cottrell. He made us better First off, Arsenal improved under Emery, we were a close fifth, one position above Wenger’s last term and he got us into the Europa League final despite the fact that players were openly laughing at his English and his tendency to pronounce words the Spanish way. Arteta still has this tendency despite years in British football but Arteta has excellent English and his accent sounds normal for a Spanish person. You would never mistake him for a English person although many long term foreigners have chosen to speak with English accents which may provoke hilarity in their home countries. Buying Saliba was a masterstroke You may say, why am I talking so much about Emery’s English? Surely football prowess is what matters? Because I believe it was the single major reason the Kroenke’s decided to move him on. His own players were videoed poking fun at him and they may well have decided that he didn’t have the respect of the players and would not get it back. Senior star players had become a problem under Wenger and Emery would have needed to clear out this element and build his own team. It took Arteta a while but he now has players he can work with and is getting better performances. A strong argument that he would have succeeded? But, given what Emery has achieved at Aston Villa, there is a strong case that he would have sorted out Arsenal. Villa are now on the verge of being a major force in European football despite being a relegation basket case when he took over mid season in 2022/23 from Steven Gerrard. He immediately transformed them into winners, shooting them up the table and the following year breaking the so-called big six dominance by qualifying for the Champions League despite many players not really being considered true stars. "Martinelli, very early on I was excited about him. He’s become exactly the player I expected. He deserves everything coming his way." Jurgen Klopp What were his transfers like at Arsenal? Edu Gaspar was appointed shortly afterwards and I assume he would have also played a large role in who came in. There are some gems and some misses but a certain amount of understanding is needed for the misses. William Saliba is the prize and has become one of the world’s elite defenders. A gold star for Emery. Gabriel Martinelli is the second and despite some fans losing faith because injuries may have diminished him somewhat, he has still been one of our best players and helped Saka to bloom as, whenever pressure was put on Bukayo, Arsenal would switch to Martinelli and teams can’t put 2 players on both of them. Martinelli has been crucial to our rise; make no mistake, even if he may be pushed out because of incomers. Unlucky with injuries, and no faith in Martinez Kieran Tierney was surely the unluckiest of Emery’s buys. He was crucial from day one, darting forward, keeping wingers in his pocket, and just getting on with the game with no nonsense. We all loved him and still do but injury after injury kept him out and probably lessened his ability. I strongly believe that if he had been injury free he would have kept everyone out and been an Arsenal legend. His first year under Emery was good. Tierney at the back -we loved him Bernd Leno was and is a good keeper but struggles with the ground football beloved of Emery and Arteta. It is hard to say he was a bad buy, though, as his record shows lots of clean sheets for Arsenal and he kept out Emil Martinez, now regarded by many as the best goalkeeper in the world. Pepe – a spectacular miss or a freak run of circumstances? Nicolas Pepe didn’t work out but he did show some flashes of brilliance. The weight of the transfer fee, his struggle to learn English (this again), and the emergence of Bukayo Saka meant that he didn’t get a consistent chance to shine and his confidence plummeted. We will never know if, if everything had gone well for him, he may have become an Arsenal legend. His ability is not in doubt, but without confidence, no player can play well. Pepe - his confidence seemed to drain away Guendouzi is another who definitely had ability but his temperament was suspect. Roy Keane was similar in his younger days but managed to sort himself out. Guendouzi has become a regular at Lazio and at 26, is in the middle of his career. Could be that he will climb better heights. Lucas Torreira was not up to standard David Luiz was hit and miss but apparently he was great with the youngsters and helped them become better players. Dani Ceballos and Denis Suarez came from Real Madrid and could have been expected to do better. It is hard to fault the logic in taking them. Torreira and Lichtsteiner did not work out. Sokratis was not of the standard required. Overall, not a bad transfer record. We would now be winners? The point is, would he be now winning trophies? It is hard not to argue that he would. He would have had almost two more years than Arteta had and his record as a manager is certainly above Arteta’s at this moment. He has transformed Villa’s players and their reputations, he has brought in top players without crazy transfer fees and the players seem to love him, always praising him for their development. Arteta’s style of play is very similar as is his micromanagement of the team from the sidelines. Could we have won our dream trophy under Emery? I wonder if, if his English had not become a joke for everyone, would he have succeeded? Did his struggle with English undermine his connections to the Kroenke’s as well? Arteta has excellent English and seems to have a great connection with his bosses. They have never gone after him despite some bad runs and his lack of trophies. Emery didn’t even manage 2 years despite bringing some improvement on Wenger’s last season. It is a credit to Emery that despite the humiliation he received over his English, he bravely went back to England, took on the basket case that was Gerrard’s Villa, and pushed them close to the top of European football. PSG, the European Champions, had a tough battle against them. Don’t laugh, but we may have had many many very good ebenings if we had stayed with Unai Emery.