As you may be aware, I’ve transcribed David Ornstein’s interviews on Arsecast before, which I’ve linked below, so I’ve transcribed his most recent one too.
In this podcast there are:
* David Ornstein
* Colin Millar
**The Great Manager Merry-Go-Round**
* We heard the timeline from Ivan Gazidis regarding the management structure for finding Arsenal’s new manager, we have to assume that this is correct and that Unai Emery was a leading candidate since his interview on the 10th May 2018.
* Ornstein was surprised that Emery wasn’t a leading candidate earlier.
* Emery was available straight away following his stint at Paris Saint Germain (PSG) and had won five trophies in two seasons. People can point to his failure to go beyond the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League as being an issue, but neither did Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and Emery has also won three Europa Leagues with Sevilla too.
* Emery is happy to work in a structure at Arsenal, he ticked a lot of boxes.
* It was actually the 10th May 2018, that Ornstein looked up his odds and saw that he was 66/1 to become the manager. Then on the 13th May 2018, Neil Fizzler of the Daily Express ran the headline: “Gunners Go for Emery”.
* Arteta seemed to be the firm candidate for a while.
* Ornstein understands that Arteta was excited to be in the process going into last weekend, they were confident that they just needed the seal of approval to discuss personal terms.
* This, is where Ornstein’s information differs from other people’s. Ornstein said that no agreement of any sort was reached with Arteta, but things were moving in the right direction.
* There is also a question to be asked. If the club were so keen on Arteta, why didn’t they wrap it up quicker than this?
* There were talks of backroom staff being discussed, but this was unconfirmed.
* Come the weekend, Arteta was hoping to hear good news, and whether Arsenal went “cold” or missed calls etc, no one knows. Come Monday, things didn’t look good for Arteta and by this point, Emery was recommended to the board.
* Ornstein believes that the interest in Arteta was genuine, he was a leading candidate and a serious contender. Ornstein feels that he was not a smokescreen.
* Ornstein feels that the club maybe regret not offering as much guidance regarding their interest in Arteta and that he wasn’t as much of a leading candidate as much as everyone thought he was.
* Arteta was waiting for the green light for the meaningful discussions, which obviously didn’t happen.
* Regarding the presentation of the candidacy, it seemed to be more polished than you might think. Ornstein said that Gazidis alluded to the process being one of the slickest processes that any organisation has ever seen, which is a surprise.
* Gazidis said: “As I’ve always said, those who know won’t speak, and those who speak, don’t know”, which seemed to suggest that they are extremely proud of how secretive the process was and how few leaks came out. Arsenal is perhaps not too proud that misinformation spread as a result, however, especially regarding Arteta.
* There is clearly a discrepancy between how good the process was, it was either very impressive or shambolic, Ornstein is more inclined to the former.
* To have gotten who Ornstein believes is the best manager in the available market right now all before the World Cup is very impressive.
* But where did Ornstein stand on Arteta? Ornstein heard really good things about him. Arteta is actually the number three, not the number two at Manchester City as some might suggest. It would have been a huge risk for Arsenal, considering Arteta’s experience etc. Other have said how ludicrous the idea would have been.
* Gazidis spoke about being brave and bold.
* Gazidis and Arteta get on really well.
* There is a story that when Arteta was captain, any money collected from fines for the players was used to buy Gazidis a watch, although that is unconfirmed, and should be taken with a pinch of salt.
* Ornstein feels that it would be unfair to say that Arsenal “bottled it”, since we aren’t privy to the discussions within the process, but it did seem to dawn on them that Arteta would have been a very risky appointment, given Arsène Wenger’s pedigree, it would have been better to get someone who has actual experience on the touchline.
* Ornstein feels that Arteta would have fitted in better. He knows the club, speaks perfect English and almost all the staff and is friends with Per Mertesacker. Others felt they needed a less-friendly appointment, which Ornstein disagreed with, Arteta wouldn’t have been all pally-pally with the players.
* They seem to have come to the right decision.
* The view of Arteta is that while he could go onto be a great coach, which he probably will, people speak so highly of him, there is no proof, they needed experience and Emery fit-the-bill very well, so if it goes wrong, they can say they took on someone with experience.
* Some of the people that Ornstein has spoken to who know the inner-workings of PSG well, have said that the job there was the “impossible Job” for him, he still won five trophies in two seasons.
* There were very few candidates who came with Emery’s trophy haul or experience available, apart from maybe Massimiliano Allegri.
* It seemed for some that nobody was the right choice, there was a lot of division among fans that seemed to be born out of the stunning news that Emery was taking over instead of Arteta. This job was fiercely speculated over.
* With Gazidis’ “As I’ve always said, those who know won’t speak, and those who speak, don’t know” quote, it might frustrate people, because many journalists didn’t know what was going on, anyway! However, the news from Ornstein’s colleagues is very well sourced, so there may be more to this process than we’ll ever know.
***
**Unai Emery’s First Impression**
* Ornstein thought that Emery was fantastic in front of the media. Pretty much everyone else in the media felt the same way too. He gave a very consummate and bullish performance.
* Emery didn’t seem to feel embarrassed by his English skills. He spoke slowly, trying to grasp the correct words and so on. He kept using the phrase “protagonist” over and over again, he seemed to be able to get his points along really well.
* He never flinched or anything once. He was very assured.
* Ornstein has seen many managers in press conferences twitch in their chair, grab the Press Officer’s knee in order to move the question along, be red-faced and look like a fish out of water, he was totally opposite. He projected very well.
* He conveyed a bit more passion in his native Spanish, which is understandable. There is a real intensity about him and from this touchline demeanour, which is sure to excite Arsenal fans.
* He enjoys possession and pressing against the opposition. Ornstein feels that he will drill the Arsenal side to within an inch of their lives.
* He was engaging, he didn’t duck any questions or look away or make Gazidis answer any questions, he was very, very good.
* There shouldn’t be many problems on the training pitch, many of the players speak Spanish.
* Ornstein feels that things couldn’t have gone much better, it bodes well for Arsenal and the hierarchy couldn’t have been much happier with what he is doing.
***
**The Transfer Team - How Can They Support Emery?**
* An extraordinary time for the club. Since Gazidis’ immortal quote of Wenger being a “Catalyst for Change”, there have been plenty of changes around the club. Sven Mislintat, Huss Fahmy, Darren Burgess and Raul Sanhellí have all been appointed.
* This new continental structure has been huge. The turnover of staff before we even appointed Emery has shown that Gazidis is ready to shape things up.
* Emery will be a key part in Arsenal’s decision-making process for transfers, but he won’t be the only part. He will have the power of “veto” on both incoming and outgoing players. He is a cog in the management group and it’s fascinating to see.
* Ornstein is already being told that Emery is already aggressively trying to get across absolutely every part of the club, he’s desperate to get to work, get to know everyone and start to improve everything.
***
David Ornstein leaves the podcast, time to speak to Colin Millar about Unai Emery in more detail.
***
**Unai Emery: A Profile with Colin Millar**
* His playing career was fairly so-so. He began work as a thirty-three-year-old manager of Lorca, in the South of Spain. he got them to the second division of Spanish football, even coming close to getting them to La Liga, at one point, but he just missed out, there, he moved to Almería, where he got them to La Liga, for the first time in twenty-five years.
* They finished eighth in La Liga in their first season. They only just missed out on a European place, which isn’t bad considering their goal was to avoid relegation.
* There were a number of clubs linked to him, he moved to Valencia. That’s where he started to make his name in wider terms.
* He spent four seasons there, which in Spanish football terms is quite a long time. He had three consecutive top-three finishes as well. That too was a difficult time for the club financially, they had to sell a lot of top players like Juan Mata and David Silva, and he still managed to do well without them.
* The Valencia stadium is still not finished yet, it’s only half-built, but there are various Geo-political restrictions preventing them from completing it.
* Real Madrid and Barcelona had really started to spend moneybag this point too, but Valencia were really considered to be “the best of the rest” at that time.
* Did he use Youth Players or buy lesser-known players to get a lot out of Valencia? He was a head coach and not a manager, so the players were brought for him, and he had to improve them from there. When he moved to Valencia, he took a number of players from the Almería squad with him, players he trusted, like Bruno Saltor Grau, now at Brighton and Hove Albion.
* At Sevilla, Emery had a very good relationship with Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo (also known as Monchi), he was instrumental in discovering players and working with Emery, however, he later left for AS Roma, where he is still their Director of Football.
* Their relationship was very strong and stable. Monchi was very useful to the club, Sevilla finished 9th two seasons-in-a-row before Emery, however, and with him, they achieved top five in consecutive seasons. The structure in place was a real benefit to him and part of the success there, however, Emery’s contribution should not be overlooked, as the results were down to him.
* He’s very energetic, his strength is his hard-work and he is so analytical. There is a lot of tactical analysis, video analysis with his players and it is really drummed into the players, he’s very meticulous and very thorough.
* A problem, however, was the nine draws and ten defeats away from home in his Sevilla season and that is something that cannot be ignored too, there is a bit of a doubt over how he can perform there, but their record was superb. Arsenal has obviously had similar results this season, but there is a good chance that that will have improved.
* In one season, Sevilla came down from the Champions League into the Europa League, but he won the trophy that season, he felt it was time to step aside after that, which is what the club agreed with as well. There wasn’t much concern with his Champions League performance, they were in a group with Juventus and Manchester City, so they had a really testing group. The seeding didn’t favour them at all.
* When he was at Sevilla, he made all the new players learn the club anthem because he wanted everyone to feel a part of the club. He wanted to bring everyone together, which was a lot harder in his stint at PSG.
* Emery is perfect to improve the squad that he has too.
* Emery is self-aware enough to correct this behaviour with people. He brings the squad together and has them fighting for each other.
* He’s very big on video analysis as well. He highlighted things like goal-kicks or throw-ins as areas to focus on as well.
* A lot of players were not onboard with this, there is the famous story that Jérémy Mathieu where Emery thought that Mathieu was not actually watching the videos provided, so one evening, Emery gave him a blank DVD and the next morning, Emery asked Mathieu what he learned from the DVD, and Mathieu said “Yes, it was very insightful”.
* There was another incident with Joaquín Rodríguez (just known as Joaquín), who was always known as a practical joker, and he told Emery that there were so many videos he ran out of popcorn when he was leaving the club.
* The video analysis did seem to rub players up the wrong way and Emery has changed this somewhat and goes through the videos with the players, so they understand.
* He drills things in the players a lot.
* Emery is seen as the ultimate pragmatist by Millar. He will win anyway way he can and will try to exploit the weaknesses of the opposition. He likes his teams to press high up the pitch, he likes a lot of running from his players and he likes his team to attack and defend as a unit and he likes his full-backs to provide width going forward too.
* A criticism of him is that he is somewhat too conservative in the big games. His away record with Sevilla and the PSG Champions League campaign seem to show that.
* His plans only work if everyone buys into it, if everyone buys into his plans, it will work well.
* There’s a lot of potential with Emery and he should fit the club perfectly.
***
A link to the podcast is here:
https://arseblog.com/2018/05/episode-47 ... y-arrives/
