He revealed: “With all due respect, the project really started when we decided to change Unai.
“That was my first planning, to go to the board and explain the reason to go in a different direction. We needed to have a coach with a very clear plan and structure of how he wanted the team to play.
“It makes our life super complicated if it’s difficult to read how a coach wants to play.
“That’s when you can make mistakes with recruitment. It’s not easy to find the right players if we don’t really understand the system and characteristics.
“That’s when you can make mistakes with recruitment. It’s not easy to find the right players if we don’t really understand the system and characteristics.
“We had to be really brave to change the coach in the middle of the season because a lot of internal people were telling me, ‘We’ve never done that before’.
“But if you’ve diagnosed that change is necessary, the decision has to be made quickly. It hurts but don’t postpone something that must be done.
Brutal.
He basically threw Unai under the bus, but it had to be done, I'm afraid.
It's time to live up to these cold words now. Please, just, no more excuses now. It's time to deliver. Top-4/EL would be a start.
Arsenal and Spurs are favorites for top-4 over Chelsea and ManU this season. No more screw-ups, please.