Tag Archives: She Wore a Yellow a Ribbon

Emery the winner / Pochettino the failure

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They are born less than 4 months apart. One on the 3rd of November 1971, the other on 2nd of March 1972. Both 46 years old. Yet one is considered as one of the brightest, best young managers in the game, whilst the other written off. Discarded. Considered a panic appointment in a messy recruitment process by Arsenal.

Unai Emery and Mauricio Pochettino. Two managers who are the same age, yet their story is so different. One is a proven winner with 8 major honours to his name. The other is yet to win his first trophy.

Since the announcement earlier this week that Emery was a poor appointment, I have found the hypocrisy and miss truths hilarious. Especially when you see the unjustified praise that surrounds Pochettino, and to a lesser Klopp.

Pochettino had a decent career at top level. 18 years that saw him go from Argentina to Spain, to France before returning to Spain, retiring in 2006 at 34. He played for the likes of Espanyol & PSG.

By the time Pochettino had retired, Emery was already into management. A journeyman playing career that saw him play throughout the Spanish league was ended by serious injury at 32. Despite no previous managerial experience, he was offered the vacant manager position at his final club, Lorca Deportiva, by the club president .

He immediately helped the club achieve promotion to the second division for the first time in its history. In his second season, the Murcians’ first ever in the second division, the team finished fifth with 69 points, only five points off promotion to the top flight. They suffered relegation in 2007, after the manager’s departure.

Emery then moved to Almería in division two, and again helped his squad overachieve: after guiding them to a first ever promotion in 2007, the Andalusian side finished eighth in La Liga in 2007–08.

By the time Pochettino had entered management in 2009 with Espanyol, Emery had already spent a year at Valencia, leading them to a sixth place-finish in spite of the club’s serious financial problems.

It is at this point, the line of Pochettino and Emery’s managerial career gets close.

Both stayed managing their clubs in Spain until 2012. During that time, Emery led Valencia to 3 third places finishes on the spin in La Liga. Continually rebuilding the side despite losing the likes of David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata.

During those same 3 seasons, Pochettino led Espanyol to league finishes of 11th, 3rd and 14th.

Emery left Valencia in June 2012 to take over a job at Spartak Moscow. He would be sacked in November, a month before Pochettino had quit Espanyol to take over the Southampton job.

Emery returned to Spanish football on 14 January 2013. 4 days later, Pochettino was announced as the new first-team manager of Premier League club Southampton.

It was at this point both managers careers became drastically different, with Emery going on to great success at Sevilla, whilst Pochettino won nothing at Southampton, left for Spurs where he has still won nothing.

It was 3 Europa League wins on the spin that led Emery to join PSG on a two-year-deal in 2016.

In 2 clubs with the French side, he led them to 5 domestic honours out of a possible 6. The only trophy that got away was in his first season when an excellent Monaco side won the league with 95 points – just 1 off the Ligue 1 record.

He left PSG after struggles in the Champions League – although it should be noted he lost to Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The Emery story is one of a manager who took his first job at just 32, took 2 clubs to promotion and 1 side to 3rd in La Liga. A story of 3 European trophies and domestic domination in France – including the domestic treble.

Meanwhile, the Pochettino story contains very little real success. Finishing above a poor Arsenal team and “putting the pressure on” Chelsea for one season the highlights of what is now nearly a decade in management.

Just writing this blog highlights the gulf of class between the two. Yet the press are reporting the stories the other way round.

Following the English media, you would think Arsenal had just employed a man who had failed to win a trophy in 10 years, whilst the Spurs manager was one who had a decade of success and 15 years of experience.

I do understand some of the criticisms of Emery.

Not winning the league in France with PSG is a failure. But then Monaco got 95 points. Maybe we should actually be praising Monaco and Leonardo Jardim (who I am sure Arsenal would have approached) rather than using that season as a stick to bash Emery?

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Emery’s lack of Champions League success with PSG has also been held against him.

In two years in Paris, he was knocked out at the last 16 stage both times. Against Real Madrid and Barcelona. It is not exactly failure to go out against those sides.

He came in for heavy criticism for the defeat to Barcelona, and rightly so. Leading 4-0 after the first leg, Barcelona beat PSG 6-1 at the Nou Camp to progress.

But I feel the Champions League criticisms are unfair.

Pep Guardiola has had equally as much to spend at Manchester City. In his two years in England, he is yet to win the Champions League.

Knocked out in the last 16 last year to Monaco, and Liverpool in the Quarter Finals this year. I do not see too many criticising Guardiola for his Champions League failures.

In fact, Guardiola has not led a team to Champions League success since 2011 with Barcelona – he failed to lift the trophy with Bayern Munich.

I do not see too many labelling Guardiola as a poor manager based on 7 years of Champions League failure with top clubs. Yet people are labelling Emery the same after his experience with PSG.

Back to Pochettino, we once more see his paths cross with Emery.

In his first two years at Spurs, he managed Spurs in the Europa League. Spurs were knocked out at the last 32 and last 16 stages.

The winners both of those years? Sevilla. Lead by Unai Emery.

One huge criticism of Unai Emery is his “lack of English”. But the language barrier, alongside his age, is probably the only thing he has in common with Pochettino.

Pochetinno spent year and a half hiding behind a translator at Southampton.

He made a decision to speak English only in private at St Mary’s. Emery is similar at the moment.

From watching UEFA interviews, he fully understands English, but chooses to answer in Spanish. This is due to him wanting to get his message across the press, without manipulation, ensuring nothing is lost in translation.

After a few months of living in England, and some confidence in himself to speak English in public, everything will be fine. English will be the language of the training ground.

Based on their careers so far, Emery has outperformed Pochettino. It would not be a big shock to see Emery win a trophy for Arsenal before Pochettino wins one for Spurs. He is the successful manager of the two, the winner. Even if the media will have you believe otherwise.

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Keenos

Granit Xhaka does not deserve Arsenal fans abuse

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There is a video doing the round of Arsenal fans abusing Granit Xhaka. I am not a fan.

I understand fans are frustrated, and that Granit Xhaka has put in some very mixed performances in an Arsenal shirt since joining, but I am a little confused as to why fans would spend £500 on flights, accommodation and tickets to Spain, to then stand in a square abusing one of Arsenal’s players before the clubs most important European game in years.

The video has been picked up by many of the “lads banter” social media sites. It is videos like these that lead to some saying Arsenal are the most embarrassing set of fans about. The “chant” is up with the majority of Arsenal Fan TV videos for causing embarrassment to the majority of the fan base.

Those fans argument will be that they “paid their money, they can do what they want”, and I do understand that. But why spend £500 to not support the club?

The thing is, Granit Xhaka can play.

Like plenty of other players under Arsene Wenger, Xhaka has been hamstrung from being a square peg in a round hole. Like others around him, the tactics and positioning employed by Wenger simply do not suit him.

Xhaka is expected to play defensive midfield, but throughout his career, he has never been THE defensive midfielder.

Like Mikel Arteta before him, Xhaka has never been the deepest midfielder in the team. For Borussia Monchengladbach, he always has someone behind him, for Switzerland the same.

We often point to Patrick Vieira as the best defensive, but at his best he always had someone behind him – Emmanuel Petit, Gilberto, Edu. That gave him the chance to drive forward at will.

The issue surrounding a lot of Arsenal is balance It is the same with Shkodran Mustafi. You can not change the centre back partnership ever single week and expect everyone to look great. We need to perhaps write of Laurent Koscielny as a first choice and put someone reliable next to him, then judge the guy.

Football is about partnerships and we do not have many partnerships throughout the squad.

Xhaka can play.

Look at N’Golo Kante. He does not sit and cover the back four like Gilberto or Claude Makelele did. He presses and covers ground.

Xhaka can play from deep, but next to him you need someone who can press for him and cover that ground. Asking Xhaka, who I actually do not think is as bad defensively as some of the others we have had in there, to provide a one man protection for a team who totally vacate the midfield is never going to work.

The issue is we have with the way Wenger sets the team up is that they are not set up as a team.

We have centre backs who play 50 yards up the pitch without pace. That would be fine if we had an Ederson or a Manuel Neuer standing 25 yards off his touchline, sweeping. Yet we have Petr Cech.

We have full backs who bomb forward causing the centre backs to split. We then expect Xhaka to press the opponents number 10, whilst also  sitting between the centre backs when the split.

It is as if there is no thought in the way we are playing.

If you decide to squeeze, to press high up the field, you buy centre backs like what Laurent Koscielny was 5 years ago, or even Gabriel. You buy athletes. You buy players to fit your style.

Jordan Henderson suits Jurgen Klopp, Ederson suits Manchester City.

A few years ago, we had Olivier Giroud. Due to his lack of pace, we had to press high, he was never going to run in behind a defence. But at the other end of the pitch we had Per Mertesacker. He could not defend high because of his lack of pace.

This resulted in either Giroud being too deep, Mertesacker too high, or a massive gap between the two for the midfield to cover.

We are a little lost in style. It is as if we do not know what sort of side we are, what sort of players we need.

A lot of this comes down to transfer policy. We seem to constantly end up with “who is available” rather than “what we need” and end up trying to put players into Wenger’s formation and tactics that do not fit it. And Wenger has to take the blame for it.

With a new manager coming in, a new transfer policy headed by Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat, hopefully we see a change in our recruitment policy. Hopefully we buy the right players in the right position.

Xhaka is a good player. We get someone alongside him and play a midfield 3 of Xhaka sitting deep, a Kante (Seri? Gueye?) type player pressing, then Aaron Ramsey doing his Superman impression, we then have balance.

We have players who defend, can press, can pass and score.

Do not blame Xhaka for Wenger’s failure to use him properly.

Keenos

Jose Mourinho SOLD XI

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In recent years, a lot has been made of Arsene Wenger’s “nearly signings”. I have always defended him by highlighting that anyone who has managed at a top club for the 20+ years he has, would have been near to signing nearly every single top player out there.

If, for example, a manager did not know about a teenage Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar, and not attempt to sign them, then they are clearly not doing their job properly.

Every manager, whether it be Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, or more, would have had many players that they were interested, that they were interested in, talking too, who signed for someone else.

It is a pointless discussion and media outlets printing an XI Arsene Wenger nearly signed are doing so just for the hits, the click bait, the advertising revenue.

What I have found interesting this week, however, is trying to builg and Jose Mourinho Sold XI. Now these players are not the likes of Robin van Persie, Gareth Bale of Cristiano Ronaldo – players who their managers did not want to lose – but players who Mourinho deemed not good enough, or no longer good enough, and actively looked to remove them from the club.

I wonder how this XI would perform:

Petr Cech

Jose Mourinho had a tough decision to make between Petr Cech and Thibaut Courtois. Ultimately, neither were going to be happy playing second fiddle, and in the end, Mourinho opted for youth.

Cech is both a Chelsea and a Premier League legend, with more Premier League clean sheets than any other ‘keeper, the 35-year-old won 15 trophies in 11 years at Stamford Bridge. He has won the FA Cup at Arsenal.

Juan Cuadrado

One of a long list of players who Mourinho signed and then did not fancy, the Columbian wing-back joined Chelsea for £23.3 million in February 2015.

6 months later, Cuadrado signed a season-long loan deal with Juventus for €1.5 million – whom he stayed with for 2 years, winning back to back Seria A titles.

Leonardo Bonucci

Widely considered one of the best defenders of his generation in world football, Leonardo Bonucci didn’t make a single appearance under Mourinho at Inter Milan, and was sold to Bari, with Inter receiving just £3.4 million.

A year later, Bonucci joined Juventus for more than £13 million, for whom he made over 300 appearances in 7 years, winning 6 Serie A titles and 6 other major trophies.

After 2 Champions League runners-up medals, the 75 capped Italian joined AC Milan on a five-year contract for €42 million in 2017.

David Luiz

Mourinho allowed David Luiz to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2014 for a £50m fee just a month before a horror show in Brazil’s 7-1 defeat to Germany in the World Cup semi-final, seemingly justifying the then Chelsea manager’s decision.

Two years later, the Brazilian international rejoined Chelsea.

He  has flourished since returning to the club under different management, though, and is now dubbed an Antonio Conte masterstroke following Chelsea’s Premier League title win in May.

Filipe Luís

A typical Mourinho transfer deal, Luis was signed in July 2014 for a fee of £15.8 million from Atletico Madrid.

Mourinho seemed to not fancy the player almost straight away, giving him just 9 league starts in his first season, before selling him back to Atletico in 2015 for the same as what they signed him for.

Tiago

Going way back to Mourinho’s debut season at Chelsea, and the serial winner made the decision to sell Tiago to Lyon for a reported €10.1 million. It was a decision that Mourinho later described as a “big mistake”, and more than a decade on, still with Diego Simeone’s expertly drilled Atletico Madrid squad.

The now-36-year-old was key when Atletico won La Liga, as well as reaching 2 Champions League finals.

3 league titles at Lyon and Atletico to go with his one at Chelsea, the defensive midfielder has 6 honours to his name since Mourinho sold him.

Kevin de Bruyne

The Belgian was signed by Chelsea under AVB in January 2012, and played just three league games in two years at Stamford Bridge. Following a highly impressive loan spell at Werder Bremen, Mourinho sold De Bruyne to Wolfsburg in 2014 for £18 million. De Bruyne lit up the Bundesliga, with 16 goals and 20 assists, being named the Bundesliga Player of the Year.

Manchester City snapped him up for £55 million, just 12 months after Jose had let him go, and he has continued his rich vein of form in the Premier League. He scored 16 goals in his first season at the Etihad and topped the Premier League assist charts in his second.

The best player in the Premier League at the moment

Juan Mata

Juan Mata was a fan’s favourite at Stamford Bridge. Brave, skilful, hard-working. He twice won the Chelsea player of the year award, and was regarded by many as key to Chelsea’s hopes of prizing the title away from Manchester.

So, Mourinho decided to go and sell him. To a Manchester club. Mourinho indirectly blamed UEFAs Financial Fair Play rules for the sale, claiming that to bolster his squad with players that he actually wanted, he had to sell some top talent.

Ironic that two years after deciding he was not good enough, Mata would once again become a key play for Mourinho for Manchester United

Mohamed Salah

Chelsea announced that a deal had been agreed with Basel to bring Salah to London for a fee reported to be in the region of £11 million in January 2014.

6 league starts and a year later, Mourinho loaned him out to Fiorentina. The summer of 2015 saw the Egyptian join Roma on loan.

Whilst Salah was in fact sold under Antonio Conte’s stewardship, Roma were able to purchase him due to a clause inserted into his loan deal with a view to a permanent during Jose Mourinho’s managerial reign.

Arjen Robben

Without doubt one of the greatest players to have been sold by Jose Mourinho, Arjen Robben is an exceptional footballer.

Injuries have thwarted some of the impact that he ought to have had on football, but he still has a remarkable goal scoring record for a winger and is simply unstoppable on his day.

Mourinho signed Robben for Chelsea in 2004, but sold him to Real Madrid for £24 million after three years. After two years in the Spanish capital, the Dutchman headed to Bayern Munich, where he has won 13 trophies and remains to this day.

Romelu Lukaku

Like Mata, Romelu Lukaku has found himself playing for Jose Mourinho after the Portuguese manager had decided he was not good enough.

Sold to Everton for £28 million in 2014 after loan spells for the club and WBA. Mourinho decided that a player who was not good enough in 2014 was worth £90m in 2017, as he signed the forward to lead Manchester United’s forward line.

Substitutes: Victor Valdes, Ryan Bertrand, Robert Huth, Rafael van der Vaart, Andre Schurle, Daniel Sturridge, Zlatan Ibrahimovic

 

Keenos