Unai Emery has confirmed that some at Arsenal wanted to give him a new contract in his first interview since being sacked by the club last month.
Unai Emery’s first interview since he left Arsenal reads like a man who hasn’t really been paying that much attention over the past 18 months. Mostly, he deems his time at the club a success and even thinks this season was going well, for the most part.
Seriously.
Let the man himself explain it to you. “The truth is that in the first year I was very pleased and the only thing left for me to do was to put the rubber stamp on the season with a win in the final of the Europa League,” he told the BBC. “In the knockout stages we looked powerful.
“And then we played in the final against Chelsea where we had a great first half in a tactical sense, and where, in my opinion, we could have taken control of the game. But Eden Hazard separated both sides in their favour and they won the match. And in the league we swam right up to the shore and died on the beach.
“We effectively lost a top-four finish at home in two games, a draw against Brighton and a loss to Crystal Palace. These happened at a time when we were heavily involved in the Europa League.
“There were things that happened that impeded our chances of responding as well as we would have wanted, such as the injuries to Rob Holding, Hector Bellerin and Aaron Ramsey.
“But it’s true that I was very satisfied with how things went because I believe we learned how to become a team, at times a team that shone, but a team that was effective and competitive, and a team that in general was showing why Arsenal signed me. I believe we achieved that and we just needed to make that final step.
“This season, theoretically, we also began well and I had the feeling – and so did the club – that the achievements of the previous season were valued and we were now looking to how we could develop together, even to the point where they were looking to offer a renewed contract,” Emery added.
As we approach Christmas, Arsenal have won just five league games this season and have a goal difference of minus three.
We are in 11th place.