Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has basically labelled Arsene Wenger’s final season at the club as unacceptable for a club of the Gunners’ size.
Wenger called time on 22 years at Arsenal by leaving at the end of the season, with the north London giants finishing without a trophy and only managing to get to 6th place in the Premier League table.
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This was Wenger’s lowest finish as Arsenal manager, and it came a year after finishing 5th in the league, which at that time had also been his lowest finish.
It’s clear the club had started to go backwards and it looks the right decision to replace Wenger with Unai Emery, whose arrival was confirmed earlier this morning.
The Gunners then arranged a press conference this afternoon, during which Gazidis introduced the new man in charge but also took a little dig at the man just leaving the Emirates Stadium for the recent under-achievement.
Henry Winter quotes Gazidis as saying he wanted a manager capable of ‘demanding more from players’.
One of the qualities that #afc sought when looking for their new manager was “demanding more from players”, according to Gazidis.
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) May 23, 2018
Gazidis is also quoted by Mark Mann-Bryans as saying: ‘All of our players, we believe, will respond to the new energy Unai brings, they will have someone under whom they can improve their individual game.
‘I don’t think anybody thinks sixth place is a place a club the stature of (Arsenal) should be.’