Unai Emery is not the new Arsene Wenger, but Arsenal hope their new-look gang of four will make all the difference

Arsenal FC via Getty Images
John Dillon4 June 2018

Arsenal had no manager for the first 11 years of their existence. The club was run by a committee, who also picked the team.

There is a sense among some current fans that the new Unai Emery regime looks like something along similar lines.

As one celebrated definition of a camel is that it is, in fact, a horse designed by a committee, there may be some trepidation - or at the very least, curiosity - about how the new set-up in north London is going to work.

Arsene Wenger’s removal this summer signalled the departure from the Premier League of the last of the great overlord football managers.

In Pictures | Unai Emery unveiled as Arsenal head coach | 23/05/2018

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Even Jose Mourinho’s position at Manchester United is little like the one occupied by Sir Alex Ferguson for 26 years.

Now, alongside Emery, Ivan Gazidis (chief executive), Sven Mislintat (head of recruitment) and Raul Sanllehi (head of football relations) appear to be the most publicly identifiable ‘group’ in command at any Premier League club.

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

This profile may have developed simply because they have replaced such a gargantuan figure as Wenger after 22 years.

There was always going to be intense scrutiny of what came next.

But it is also true that we don’t seem to hear half so much so much about the working set-ups behind the big figures of the management game at Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea.

Manchester City’s pair of executives, Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano are known vaguely but they are background figures, dwarfed in terms of national perception by Pep Guardiola.

So having bought into this kind of structure more fully than any other English club, Gazidis can expect there to be a stringent focus applied to the way things are run at the Emirates as the new era begins.

Already, it has been noted that the recruitment policy under Minslintat has consisted largely of signing players with whom he is familiar from his former club Borussia Dortmund.

Action Images via Reuters

Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang came directly from there; Henrik Mkhitaryan arrived from the Westfalenstadion via a lukewarm spell at Manchester United.

Now the £16million signing of Dortmund defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos is imminent.

Meanwhile, the teenage midfielder Yacine Adli - currently at Emery’s last club PSG - is on the also on the radar.

It does not suggest that an all-encompassing new global transfer operation is in place yet.

These points are not made to dismiss Arsenal’s new style out of hand. It may be a runaway success.

The feeling among those fans who campaigned for Wenger’s exit was that the club had stagnated.

Those who demanded a fresh approach and a complete overhaul of the way Arsenal operate have certainly got their wish. This is a radical change.

Josh Kroenke, son of the majority owner Stan Kroenke, has joined the board and is said to be taking a pro-active role, too.

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

In driving this change, Gazidis has shown himself to be bold, innovative and thoughtful.

However, you detect a sense of among some supporters that it is all a little underwhelming - especially when there is a limited transfer budget available of around £50m.

Again, that may simply be because Wenger’s departure was such a momentous watershed in the club’s history that it felt like something sensational had to follow it.

Emery is widely respected and won three Europa League titles for Sevilla in a row.

In Pictures | Unai Emery | 22/05/2018

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Arsenal’s big ambition for silverware should lie in that competition next season, because they are not going to win the title.

But many fans expected a replacement for Wenger from the very top level of the European management merry-go-round.

It has not been unusual in Arsenal’s history to take a step out of left-field when it comes to managerial appointments. They promoted Bertie Mee from physiotherapist and he won the famous Double of 1971.

Now they have taken what can loosely be termed the European approach to the most complete level in big-time English football.

It is true enough that bosses like Antonio Conte at Chelsea don’t have the power they would like. That is precisely why he has spent so much time complaining about the club’s transfer activity.

AFP/Getty Images

Mauricio Pochettino also made his points about the way transfer business is conducted at Tottenham.

Liverpool have their transfer committee despite Jurgen Klopp’s huge presence.

But it is Arsenal who have what looks like a Gang of Four running the club, with Kroenke having the ultimate grip on power in the USA.

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

It could be a brave new way forward; it could fail. Certainly, it once more marks out Arsenal as different from the rest. That has always been one of their great strengths. Gazidis hopes it will be again.

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