Posted by It’s been nearly a month since I’ve OPRed a game, the November 2 one against Wolves that I basically mailed in. Twenty-six minutes into the Leicester game I got tired of banging my head against a wall. I didn’t even start Southampton. Unless there’s a new coach, I can’t imagine doing so for Sunday’s Norwich game either.
What’s the point? Unai Emery will be sacked in the following days or weeks. Or hours, if you’re to believe Twitter:
[Update: He gone]
That it’s taken this long has eroded nearly all of Raul Sanllehi’s goodwill following a summer transfer window that saw him fill nearly every hole in the Arsenal lineup, and set Arsenal up as favorites for fourth place in the league. Even third, based on early season stumbles from Tottenham and Manchester United that Arsenal have since joined in on.
So much of football success is down to timing. Liverpool held onto Brendan Rodgers an offseason too long in 2015, but doing so allowed Jurgen Klopp (and a Champions League title) to fall into their laps. Maurizio Sarri left Chelsea after a single season at the end of 2018-19 following his much publicized on-field spat with Kepa Arrizabalaga, only for club legend Frank Lampard to come in and barely skip a beat.
There’s no such savior waiting in the wings for Arsenal. Massimiliano Allegri is the only high profile manager currently available, unless you count the recently sacked Mauricio Pochettino, but neither seem likely to take over mid-season in North London.
The lack of readily available options has likely contributed to Emery’s continued employment, and up until the last month there was an argument for keeping him until the summer and making a run at Ajax’sErik ten Hag or RB Leipzig’s Julian Nagelsmann.
Arsenal may still wait until Summer 2020 to permanently fill their manager position, the biggest obstacle being a job that’s less attractive to upper echelon hires than those within (and outside) the club originally thought. Would ten Hag or Nagelsmann turn down Bayern Munich, for example, in favor of the Emirates?
The Gunners could hardly get rid of Arsene Wenger quickly enough two seasons ago, but one thing has been made clear by Emery’s failure: Be careful what you wish for.