He doesn't need to be. We have Mislintat and Sanllehi for transfers. But Emery will still be involved in that process, without having to do the negotiating himself. As has been mentioned already, I think this season and possibly next are a free hit for Emery, whilst he implements his tactics and philosophy and buys the players he wants to suit his system. Hopefully though, we'll see some big improvements before then
Football unfortunately is a result based business, I totally disagree with the notion of a "free hit" for 2 seasons. Where have you ever seen that done? What does that actually mean on the pitch? Does it mean regression for 2 years, and after the 3rd year you expect something, then you wield the axe. Then you repeat the cycle with a new manager, 2yr free hit and sack at the end of the 3rd year. I will expect this team in the worst case scenario to at least finish in 5/6th and push on for top 4 next year. Any thing short of that, then questions needs asking as regards if he is the right man. No one is saying he should go and win the league, however, we massively underperformed last season! This team, even with a rookie coach should at least be able to finish 6th!
Ok obviously if he finishes, say, 7th/8th for two seasons in a row, then he should undoubtedly leave as our current squad isn't that bad. And we should get some more money for transfers next Summer as we are renegotiating some of our current sponsorships, which means we should still have enough pulling power for good players to sign. However, I do think Gary Neville got it spot on when he said this should be like a three-year project. First year: free hit, but realistically should still be finishing within the top 6. Second year: should be looking to get back into the top 4. Third year: aiming to compete for the Premier League title. There are some very tough teams in the Europa League this season, and we obviously don't know who we might face from the Champions League drop outs. But if we can win the Europa League (a huge IF I know), then I don't really care where we finish this season and, hypothetically, it has to be seen as a success regardless of where we end up domestically.
I think it's going to take time to unpick the Wenger years and instil a new philosophy. And it's going to take time for Emery to get the players in that he wants. That could take 3 windows at least. So we're looking at halfway through next season realistically before we can say that Emery even has the team he wants assembled. So yes I would say 2 seasons before we can begin to judge properly. What I don't want to see is us doing a Man Utd and yo-yoing between managers, because we don't get instant results.
The point I was trying to make earlier is that Emery doesnt get to pick 'the players he wants'. He will say he needs a new leftback or whetever but the actual selecting/scouting and signing comes down to Minislat/Raul. This is why I think we DO need to worry if improvements in team performance dont come. Essentially Emery is a coach and if he doent get the side playing well - he is ****ed.
