Guillem Balague says Arsenal’s academy prospects don’t need to worry about getting chances in the first-team under reported new manager Unai Emery.

Emery’s youth philosophy

Speaking on his YouTube channel on Monday, Balague explained Emery’s philosophy when it comes to young players.

“Unai is somebody that doesn’t look at your passport to see what age players are,” he explained. “He’s happy to give opportunities.

“He also knows that once you get to the elite you have to win, of course. So it’s not only about developing players, but he will be close to that process. That is something that is exciting to him.”

That should be reassuring to hear for Arsenal fans, because the club needs a manager who believes in young players.

Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock tore the Premier League 2 to pieces this season, and they’re clearly too good for that level. Now they need help and opportunities to develop into first-team players.

They aren’t the only ones either.

Under-23 captain Joshua Dasilva perhaps deserved a few more chances than he got this season. Konstantinos Mavropanos showed he’s almost ready for the first-team in the final matches. Ainsley Maitland-Niles performed very well when given opportunities across the course of the campaign.

Then there’s Ben Sheaf, who had a strong loan spell. Matt Macey, who only conceded one goal in two games for the first team. Jordi Osei-Tutu, who didn’t get any time on the pitch for the senior side, but made the squad on a number of occasions, and looks ready to step up as a back up to Hector Bellerin.

The priority is winning matches, but if Emery can integrate a few of these players along the way, even better.

For Emery’s contract details, information about the appointment process and more, click ‘Next’

Contract Details

Unai Emery will get a three-year contract with Arsenal, taking over from Arsene Wenger as manager of the club this summer, according to reports in France. He’ll earn £5m-a-year managing the team, according to the Daily Mail.

Tuesday’s Le Parisien writes that Emery took a private plan from Le Bourget to London on Monday morning, and agreed a three-year deal to take over the club. They say an official announcement and press conference will take place in the coming days, or even as soon as today. Either way, they’re certain the appointment is ‘imminent’.

Interestingly, they write that Emery’s PSG contract doesn’t officially end until 30th June. I’d imagine that’s just a technicality though, and Arsene Wenger’s deal was probably the same.

The French club have already announced Thomas Tuchel as their new manager, so clearly we’re not waiting around for those old contracts to expire.

The whole process clearly moved very quickly, as just seven days earlier Emery was telling Spanish outlet Cadena SER in no uncertain terms that he had no offer from Arsenal. Although, he admitted he was open to one, so this was always a possibility.

Now we just have to wait for that official announcement, and then the usual transfer nonsense can get underway in earnest.

To read details of the appointment process and how Unai Emery compares to Arsene Wenger, click ‘Next’

The Appointment Process

Guillem Balague, who was the first journalist to reveal that Unai Emery was under serious consideration for the Arsenal job, has now given details of the appointment process to fans.

Balague used to be way off the mark when it came to Arsenal transfer news, but this year he’s called the Aubameyang transfer and the Emery appointment perfectly. It seems Raul Sanllehi’s presence in the club is helping the Sky Sports journalist to get some real inside information, at last.

The Spaniard explained to his YouTube channel how the whole thing went down this week.

“Arsenal spoke to 10 managers,” Balague explained. “Not everybody [was similar] to each other. So Arteta doesn’t have a lot to do with Unai Emery.

“They wanted to check all of them to see their reaction to the structure of Arsenal, their personality, their chemistry, if they actually represented the values of Arsenal and if they could continue the progressive football of Arsenal as well. Can they continue with Arsene Wenger’s philosophy, idea, etc.?”

Balague then revealed some of the managers Arsenal spoke to, including Luis Enrique and Mikel Arteta. He also set the timeframe for the announcement of Unai Emery, saying the 46-year-old will be presented “during the week”.

After that he got onto what to expect from the new boss, compared to the only one fans have known for the last 22 years.

“Unai Emery is less charming than Arsene Wenger,” he began. “He adds more detail to what teams and players do, both in training and in games. Not everybody will accept that, there are some players that are in a comfort zone. Players that don’t want to be changed, just want to go to training and go to the games.

“Then there’s the winners. The winners at Arsenal will want what Emery’s bringing. That intensity in training, in the message, he will sharpen everybody up, he will demand more of everybody.”

Hopefully the players already know they need to put in some hard work to improve on this season. Sixth place is bad, but the scale of the distance to the top sides is even worse.

We’ll have to wait and see when the new manager takes charge of his first matches in pre-season.

To read Arsene Wenger’s opinion on the reported new Arsenal manager, click ‘Next’

Wenger on Emery

Arsene Wenger described Unai Emery as a very competent manager for the PSG job in March, and warned the club against sacking him.

Speaking to beIN SPORTS a couple of months ago, Wenger discussed Emery’s situation with PSG at the time. The manager was heading towards winning seven pieces of silverware in two years with the club, yet it seemed almost certain he wouldn’t last until next season.

Arsene Wenger, who admitted he’s always been close to and supported PSG, implied they were making a mistake.

“Personally I believe Paris Saint-Germain needs to have stability, and that Unai Emery has suddenly been ejected by the whole media,” he said. “But that decision has not to be made by the media.

“Watching it from the outside, Unai Emery for me is a very competent person. I’m not like you [who] think that Unai Emery should go.”

It certainly seemed like Emery was on the right track on the pitch with PSG. He won 76% of his matches, the Ligue 1 title, the Coupe de France twice, the Coupe de la Ligue twice and the Trophee des Champions twice. Unfortunately, the likes of Neymar thought they were above what the manager had to offer.

With Arsenal, things should be different. He’s not taking over a bunch of superstars who expect success and don’t really want to work for it. He’s taking over a team of players who know they need help to reach their potential. The situation is much more similar to that of Valencia or Sevilla, where he did so well with such limited resources.

Hopefully Wenger is right that Emery is a more than competent manager.