They had been doing research and due diligence long before, but didnt start the actualy interview process until after the wenger announcement out of respect. Dont be so naive. The pool of potential fits in head coach is not as deep as you think. Your not hiring a sunday league coach...
Just so we're clear - My post doesn't express my feelings about the new manager. I'm OK (but not ecstatic...yet) with the Emery hire. The point I'm trying to make is that I would have expected Arsenal to already have a successor more-or-less lined up since everybody knew Wenger was on his last contract with ~1 year left. I acknowledge this isn't the only way to hire a manager, but it's just not the process that I envisioned under the given circumstances. By all accounts I've read, the team had no idea who the new manager would be when they forced Wenger out, and I personally find that troubling. On the other hand, I do appreciate that the team realized that lack of silverware and 6th place finish in the league was reason to ask Wenger to go early. A change had to be made - perhaps sooner than the team wanted or expected. So I can admit a may be a little hypocritical here about how prepared Arsenal should have been. I also appreciate the fact that hiring Emery so quickly now gives us sufficient time to work on transfers before the world cup. Hopefully business can be done sooner than later now that Emery is in place. Maybe Emery was the guy they privately had in mind all along before they let Wenger go. It certainly doesn't sound that way since it's sounds like the interview process directed them to hire Emery.
Well the didnt know Emery would be available until April. Not like we could pull him from PSG. But honestly who the hell knows what happened and what perceptions we were led to believe. This clubs management is shady af. Thats all we know. Wait for wengers book at some point.
I think we may have to wait a long time for that. I don't think he's writing anything until he retires from management, and the indications are that he has club if not country management still on his mind.
No. And I'm not sure he would ever want to do that. He alluded to the press's fixation on Arteta, but he dismissed that with his opening quote "those who spoke didn't know, and those who knew didn't speak".
Again, completely missing the thrust of my argument. It's an argument that's been made already multiple times on this thread and the Unai thread by me and many others: the process by which we came to Unai as our head coach was an alarmingly bungled process, which sheds new light on where some of that organizational dysfunction stems from--seeing as we've eliminated one variable in Wenger. And again, I've said every. single. time. that I'm ambivalent about Emery himself. But if you buy the line that he was their first choice, amidst all the blatant Arsenal-leaked media prepping for Arteta for two weeks, then that reveals, among other things, that Gazidis is chicken shit and he isn't fit to be in his job.
We can infer: Emery, Arteta, Allegri, Vieira, Nagelsmann, Low, maybe Thierry, maybe Tuchel, maybe Jardim, maybe Ancellotti, maybe Hassenhutl for the last two spots.
They didn't want the haters to know that Emery was the main choice so they leaked Arteta's name to throw off the haters. Yeah thats it.
Sorry mate but we're just not seeing eye to eye today. The only way he lasts that long is if he gets us into top 4 consistently during those 3-5 years, and wins a trophy or two along the way. Bascially if he can't improve on our last 2 years under Wenger, I think he'll be given 12-18 months before getting the can. Yes even at The Arsenal.
I would think minimum 3 years because he needs to turn over the list and hopefully the board sees that and gives him time to clean out the rot and bring in some talent. It only stretches to 5 if he wins stuff and we don't fall apart on the pitch.
That’s just it. There are NO facts to support that it was bungled. I don’t think that “all things being equal” he was their first choice of all the managers in the world. But I see no reason not to believe what Ivan said. That in the end, when they were done with all the interviews and had time to research and deliberate about their top choices, Emery was the guy they wanted. And where do you get this blatant leaked arteta news stuff. Everything ornstein reports is not a leak from Ivan. And even if they thought for a couple of days that arteta was their guy, and then decided differently that’s okay too. That’s part of a thorough process.
I mean no disrespect, but this is obviously going to be the fulcrum by which any further argument with you hinges, and I just don't think it's worth either of our time hashing out who to believe between multiple journalists on record or Ivan Gazidis.
At times like this media analysis can be our friend If we go back and read what Ornstein actually wrote 5 days ago two things are apparent 1. He is not over the top in his arteta claims. Rather arteta appears to be the front runner vs the others mentioned. We in fact know all those candidates had dropped out. 2. Related to point 1, Emery is not even trailed. This indicates to me that Emerys name was not planted with the favoured journalists but was tightly held. Hence the surprise factor. IIRC Emery's name as a strong contender emerged late on Twitter because he was seen at Luton airport Arsenal close to appointing boss, next week likely. Start of continental model: head coach slots into predefined structure, will contribute to recruitment decisions & have veto. Transfer targets were discussed with interviewees, pre-sales budget ~£50m #AFC https://t.co/dNG5Txudmo— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) May 18, 2018
Well apart from us all getting caught up in the Melrose place style saga - it is interesting in terms of how competent Arsenal appears as an organisation One possibility is that Arsenal ran a good process but bungled the media work. I mean its clear now the media was not done very well, with Gazidis having to justify himself in a set piece. What I wonder about is whether the 3 decision makers were split on this and one of them was promoting Arteta in the media to test the waters. But on any reading it seems odd Arteta was anointed by the MSM if Emery was already front runner by 12th May Hardly says joined up strategy!
As far as corporate exec search goes, most top organisations with proper succession planning will have a list of names However you can't get very active on that before you sack/lose your incumbent for practical reasons. The most obvious is that your targets will normally be working somewhere else. So while you can maybe have a sit down or surreptitious call to establish contact "in case such an opportunity should in future arise" you can't really get people to put together a full pitch for a vacancy that has not arisen yet. Let alone get on to the hard part of what it would take to get them to leave their current employer. Emery only left PSG on 28 April. Meanwhile a guy like Tuchel who was almost certainly a target was being courted by PSG and Bayern This is all why so many clubs just end up hiring whomever of the current names is available
Maybe if we fired managers more often like Spuds or Chelsea, we'd be better at the hiring process and media updates on it. I think it's a good problem to have. Regardless, Emery is our guy and it's time to see what he does. Who cares how he got here.
You guys present the scenario like ornstein is having sit downs with gazidis every day. What do you mean “briefed one way on arteta”. Read his post and articles...he only said that arteta was the front runner. He also mentioned Allegri as still a possibility along with PV. So he was very clear the club was still working. Others ran with it and fans accepted as gospel and a done deal. The article you referenced said “something changed over the weekend”. How can that be when the board voted on Friday for Emery and Monday morning they were on a plane to meet Kroenke? How is this the same as the Tuchel thing? Rumors are that he turned them down, not the other way around right? Gazidis said all the short list (arteta implied) maintained interest until they decided—dispelling the rumors that arteta broke over xfer control. Look, I obviously don’t have any inside info or special insight into how things are run. I just think we are judging Ivan and co harshly for doing their job. Whether arteta was the number one for a while and they switched horses late for some reason or whether they considered every candidate thoroughly and made their decision in the end—I see no fault in either scenario. I personally think Emery is a better choice, so the fact that they came to that decision even if late I have no issue with.
So Gazidis tells the press the truth, off record with no quotes and then lies in a press conference when the world is watching? Anyway, doesn’t matter bc he didn’t contradict ornstein. Ornstein said “Arteta is the front runner” and “there is a feeling among the staff that [arteta] is set to get it”. That’s it. That’s all.