With the club making the worst start to a season since 1982, every man, his dog, and his prized Big Mouth Billy Bass can see that Unai Emery’s career as Arsenal manager is hanging in the balance. After having “won the summer transfer window”, fans expected the Gunners to kick on and improve after a poor end to last season but a series of disappointing events such as the infamous Granit Xhaka outburst, the continuing saga of Ozil vs Emery, and the surrendering of leads against Wolves, Crystal Palace, Vitoria S.C., and Liverpool, have put the club and manager under intense scrutiny.
This season so far under Emery, compared to last season when he started very well and the team were showing promising signs, is a little bit like owning a well-behaved dog that brought you nothing but joy and delight for the first year… to having it lose all semblance of discipline, or house-training, which has resulted in it shitting all over your Milano Chesterfield sofa on a regular basis, the following year.
In an accumulation of poor performances, bad results, and the “dreaded vote of confidence”, speculation of a new manager is rife. With the belief and spirit low at the Emirates, the Gunners could do with a manager used to improving performances and raising morale within a fairly short amount of time.
Is it time to take that ill-disciplined mutt to the animal shelter and find it a much more suitable home? And replace it with a more reliable, impressive, and well-groomed pooch?
Erik the Messiah
Ajax hadn’t achieved the success that they so often expect for a total of four years before Erik ten Hag arrived at the club on the 21st of December 2017. Not only did he have to deal with the pressure of the highly ambitious club’s trophy drought but not long before his arrival, academy prospect Abdelhak ‘Appie’ Nouri suffered a cardiac arrest during a friendly match, which resulted in him lying in a coma for several months.
The emotional, financial, and legal burden that this unfortunate tragedy had imposed, still cast a very dark cloud over the club when Ten Hag arrived. So, combine that with the fact he had only managed de Godenzonen for half a season at the start of his managerial tenure, they did incredibly well to go from 5th place, before he took over, to finishing 2nd in the league and qualifying for Champions League football for the following campaign. Under Ten Hag so far, Ajax have displayed an attractive style of football by employing dominant build-up phases of attack, space creative countermovements, attacking fluidity, and an advantageous pressing system built for countering in crucial areas of the pitch. All of this whilst deploying a balance of young academy prospects with experienced heads.
It was Erik ten Hag’s second season at Ajax where he truly carved out a reputation for himself as a promising progressive head coach, and in turn, helped shine the public spotlight on the Amsterdam team. In 2018/19, his first full season in charge, Ajax won the KNVB Cup (FA Cup equivalent), the Eredivisie, and captured the world’s attention by reaching the Champions League semi-finals by beating Real Madrid and Juventus along the way. The man who slightly resembles professional wrestler, Stone Cold Steve Austin, opened up a can of whoop-ass all over the footballing world.
Erik the Liberator
Under Emery, these Arsenal players are clearly suffering from a lack of confidence and belief. You’d have to say that a constant tinkering of system, not settling on a starting XI, and a possible inability to inspire has had a big effect on them. Considering Ten Hag gets the best out of his men utilising a 4-3-3 formation, the players in the Arsenal team would relish in this system given he instils them with the same belief, freedom to express themselves, and positional awareness as he does his Ajax players.
Erik the Enhancer
After the defeat to Tottenham in the Champions League semi-final last season where Ajax threw away a 3-goal lead, along with the recent draw to Chelsea in which they were at one point winning by 4 goals to 1, it is a common misjudgement that the Amsterdam team are defensively poor under Ten Hag. (I must add that the draw to Chelsea had been massively affected by Ajax’s double sending off.) In his first season in charge at Ajax they conceded the least amount of goals in the Eredivisie, and during his 2nd spell they only had 32 scored against them. Comparatively, Arsenal under Emery let in 51 goals last season and have let in 17 this season compared to Ajax’s 9.
When Emery took charge of the Gunners, he made a statement during his pre-season press conference that he intended to make Arsenal protagonists on the football pitch, leading fans and everyone involved to believe that we would remain an attacking threat (perhaps even improve) from when we under the stewardship of Wenger. Last season, you can argue Arsenal achieved that prerogative as they reached a tally of 73 goals in the Premier League, the third highest that season. However, this season the Gunners have scored only 16 goals, more than 10 goals less than each team currently in the top 4. In contrast, Ajax have scored a whopping 43 goals so far in the Eredivisie. We need a gunslinging manager at the helm that not only organises us at the back but has us firing on all cylinders. We need Ten Hag….Sheriff Ten Hag!
Erik the Englishman
Arguably a minor issue but a concern that has been cast by many is that rumours indicate Emery struggles to fully communicate tactics due to his inability to speak fully fluent English. Whether this is true or if it actually impacts his leadership within the dressing room is debatable but the fact this is a talking point only adds to the toxicity within the atmosphere. It also helps to have a voice of the club that can clearly communicate ideas, strategies, or matters of a general interest to the fanbase and the media. For whatever reason, whether it be language or just poor communication skills in general, Emery just isn’t seen as having that in his locker. Ten Hag wouldn’t have this issue at all as he is one of the many Dutch people that has a better grasp of the English language than some English natives.
Erik the Red
With a rich history of Dutch players to have successfully plied their trade for Arsenal, then who better to get the best out of this struggling group than this Flying Dutchman, Erik ten Hag? It would be an extremely difficult task to pry him away from Ajax especially as he has been potentially earmarked for the Bayern Munich job. They are also flying in the Eredivisie and competing well in the Champions League. However, if we hold any hopes or ambitions of reaching our former heights than we need to be acquiring managers of this ilk to get us there. We managed to convince Nicolas Pépé against joining the Champions League bound Napoli in order to join the mighty, mighty Arsenal… so why can’t we do it with Erik ten Hag. Money talks… and at the end of the day, the Red Army needs Erik the Red to lead them to the top of the mountain once again!
The Highbury Daze 