Originally Posted by
I am invisible
Yeah, I think there's a lot of truth to this.
Whilst an impressive track record is always a nice-to-have, I'm not sure it's always the most important factor when making these appointments? Sometimes you've got to try and see past that and really focus on the skills and ideas that they'll add when working out who is the best fit our specific role / project. I see a lot of stuff about comparing similar levels (based on whether clubs are in the EL or CL places, or serious title contenders), but the truth is no two clubs (and their brief for managers / coaches) are the same - just look at the vast differences in styles between the top 6 in the EPL! Same 'level' but wildly different philosophies and methods.
You see it with players all the time - guys like Henry and Bergkamp were just kind of getting by in Italy, but it wasn't until they came to Arsenal that they really found their perfect 'fit'. Sometimes it's the culture and footballing philosophy that's the problem, sometimes it's the very specific role they're being asked to perform, when their skill set might be better suited to something else? Again, Henry was playing on the wing for Juventus, but we immediately made him CF and he never looked back. Petit went from LB to CM, Ralphy from RW to RB, Kolo from CM to CB, van Persie from LW to CF, Cazorla and Arteta from AM to DLP, etc, etc.
What if the same is just as true for managers / first team coaches? With a club like PSG, where some players are basically undroppable, and they're buying in expensive, finished articles who need no coaching, then oddly enough their ideal manager is probably someone like Wenger - a manager who never rotates his team, and spends all his time telling his players that they're great, and shielding them from criticism (Neymar would probably love him). Whereas someone like Emery, who is more about details and challenging players to improve, even if it means hard work and taking them out of their comfort zone, might be welcomed at Arsenal with open arms (I know a lot of Gooners will scoff at that, thinking that the current Arsenal squad is literally Comfort made manifest, but I think think the truth is that a lot of our players simply look lost, and have been crying out for clear direction for a long time now)? At any rate, it clearly wasn't a good fit for PSG's room full of super-egos.
I guess you just have to hope that the club have done their homework properly, and that the talk of the directors being blown away by the depth and detail of Emery's presentation are accurate. If that particular story is true then it's encouraging, because you don't just put together a presentation like that overnight - it's something he will have been thinking about and preparing for a while, meaning that he will have been aware of our interest for a while, and that this appointment isn't just a panicky, last-minute 180.