When it comes to talking about Arsenal and the issues they are facing at the moment, one man who is not afraid to say things the way they are, is the former Arsenal defender Matthew Upson.
Over the weekend, Upson was quoted to have said the players had lost their believe in Emery being the man to make things happen, by BBC radio 5.
“[A loss to Southampton] leaves [Emery] in real limbo because I think he’s struggling,” Upson said on BBC Radio 5 Live as relayed by the Express. “I was at Leicester on Saturday and I saw a really poor performance from Arsenal.
“It was almost like they tried to cater to not get beat at Leicester who was on top form, and this is Arsenal, and never really got any kind of grip of the game.”
Upson was then asked if he thought Emery could be gone very soon: “Maybe, maybe that’s the case, maybe there’s already a loss of belief or whatever it may be in the manager,” Upson replied.
“He came to the club, Emery, and he tried to change things, he tried to be more disciplined… I thought he had a decent first season. At the end of last season you thought [you’ve got] this summer now, but you have to make progress this season and I don’t think they have.”
I can’t really say if this is true or not but the fact remains that the players are all acting like they are no longer interested in playing for Emery.
A lot of the players have been coming out to express their displeasure at the direction things are going at the club at this moment, and this statement from Upson may just add some credibility to many people’s belief that all is not rosy at the club and something needs to be done about it fast.
Do you think the players have lost their belief in Emery?
Sylvester
Sylvester, cast your mind back to the Wenger era.
Sections of the fanbase had been crying out for years for a change because, as they saw it, we were not performing and fourth place was not good enough, along with three recent fa cup wins – a complete change across the club was desired.
AW had lost the players in his last year (in my opinion) and he took the honorable decision to resign, some say he was sacked, that really doesn’t matter.
gazidis, with the obvious blessing of kronkie, had taken over the running of the club, leaving AW to, basically, coach the players for his last two seasons.
He won the fa cup and finished fifth and sixth in the league.
The new regime took over and introduced UE as the new coach, leaving the running of the rest of the club to this regime.
So we can only judge UE on the results on the pitch and how they are playing.
In his first season he finished fifth and reached a european final that we lost.
This season, we are struggling after committing over £220,000,000 for new players and over £175,000,000 the year before.
We have a very strong group of players, most certainly stronger than the group Ue inherited, so why are we struggling?
It’s not the regime, because they don’t control what is going on during the game – it is only UE and the players who do that.
So, of course he has lost the players, the signs are there for all to see – it doesn’t need pundits or the media to tell us, just watch the lacklustre performances, the players who have openly questioned UE’s techniques and the need for raul to come out and have to openly support him.
Sorry for the long post, but I have seen our club fall from the so-called lost decade (what a load of rubbish that is) to absolute and utter rubbish.
We are even debating if we can beat Southampton at home – with some fans calling for Mick carthy to become manager!!!!
Ken well said(your brackets comment aside). Also only one fan is, surely in jest, calling for McCarthy. But your post,substantially, is spot on. As for being a long post,some of mine are almost books! Better a complete opinion than a mere soundbite, I’d always argue!
Think the fans have given up on Emery isn’t that enough? 18 months and still waiting on progress. Pity Kronke doesn’t support us like his Rams, wouldn’t that be something?
please can someone explain to me how emery spend 395m pound in 18months of his reign at arsenal?
Simple, we have not
kristoman, just to clear this up, I did not say that emery had spent that money in his 18 month reign.
what I was indicating was that gazidis had taken over the responsibility of contracts, selling and buying of players at the start of the last two seasons (not one) of AW’s time, leaving him in the same position as UE is, that being a coach.
That is what I was trying to explain when I said both were coaches.
Since then, you will find that we have signed players that reportedly amount to those figures,(if you include the salaries of our loan players reported salaries and lichsteiners season long reported salary) give or take, of course, as we can only go on reported fees.
I re-read my post and I didn’t word that spending sentence properly, for which I apologise…”last season” should have been “last two seasons”.
My point was, both coaches had mishandled these highly valued players and lost the dressing room, the point of the post.
We will see over the next few games as to whether the statement has any credence at all. I expect the players and the coach to come out fighting. I expect a few changes and i expect a different attitude in performance. The international break should have been a period for reflection for a lot of people and it should be looked on as a new start. I think we will find out relatively quickly whether that is the case. One good win and the bullshhhh media will lay off and allow us to move on. One more bad performance will fuel it even more. The Southampton game is more important that any Southampton game probably ever.
I think the players don’t have faith in emery’s style of football. It’s tough to put in efforts and not get results, they know one or two things about football and putting players in wrong positions hurts the team, also Emery likes to complicate his football philosophy. Players are not dumb to not understand this facts that are besetting us.