It has been weeks in the making, but today marks the day that Arsenal finally decided to relieve Unai Emery of his duties as Arsenal’s head coach.

In a dignified and complimentary statement, Emery posted a letter of thanks to everyone at Arsenal – the players, the staff and the fans. His statement said:

It has been an honour to be the Arsenal head coach.

To all the fans, I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for helping me to understand and feel the greatness of Arsenal. To all of you who have supported us from every corner of the globe, all of you who have come to the Emirates, all of you who have waited in the rain and cold just to greet me after a game. I want to tell all of you that I have worked with passion, with commitment and with effort.

I would have liked nothing more than to have achieved better results for you.

I also want to send a message of gratitude to all Arsenal employees for the way they have treated me. The greatness of Arsenal is in every director, executive, employee, assistant and volunteer.

In particular, I want to highlight Ivan Gazidis, who welcomed me to the club, and Raul Sanllehi, Edu and Vinai Venkatesham for their respect, companionship and help. Until the very last minute I have been treated with honour and honesty. And of course, I send my sincere gratitude to the Kroenke family, for their trust.

It has been a year and a half full of emotions, of great moments and some other more bitter ones, but not a single day has gone by without me stopping to think about how lucky I have been to work for this club with these players and their professional and personal qualities.

They have always honoured the shirt they wear. They deserve your support.

I had already experienced a lot in football, but I have enjoyed and learned a lot in England, in the Premier League, about respect for professionals and about the purity of football.

My best wishes always.

COYG

At the end of the day, we all know the issues he had with the club which started in March, when we collapsed in the Premier League and really should have secured 4th place, and then collapsed again in the Europa League final.

Then there were issues with some of our players, including Mesut Özil, Granit Xhaka and Alexandre Lacazette.

But for all his faults (and unfortunately, were just too many), he always carried himself well and is clearly, on a personal level at least, a perfect fit for Arsenal.

He is dignified in his manner, refuses to criticise his players, always remains positive and there’s no doubt he tried his absolute best.

Remind you of anyone?

So in that respect, we couldn’t have asked for any more – so thank you for your efforts Unai, and I truly mean that.

Despite the way things ended, without a win in 7 successive games, it wasn’t all bad times. We started last season unbeaten in 22 games, we looked like we were improving defensively and every Arsenal fan was on board with him and his ideas up until March / April time, just before things started to unravel.

Why didn’t things work out for Unai Emery?

Perhaps we expected too much from a manager who has a limited skillset. He has done well with smaller teams and maybe we needed a man who had more experience at the top top level, which is where we want to be. I do feel that the job was too big for him and that isn’t his fault. He’s taking over from a man who was not just at the club for 22 years, but was the person who moulded what the current club is all about in terms of outlook, ethos, traditions and values.

It’s a gargantuan task for anyone to take on.

You see David Moyes at Manchester United – he struggled badly there as well but it doesn’t suddenly mean he’s a bad manager. Alex Ferguson, the man who ran that club for decades had the opportunity to help select the manager he thought was best to take over at the club – so if a great like Sir Alex can make a mistake, then it’s not as if anyone saw this coming.

I really hope Emery takes some time off, takes time to reflect on his Arsenal experience and gets another job more suited to him.

Thank you for everything Unai, and I wish you all the best.

David Ornstein, the ultimate authority on all things Arsenal, has just revealed that the club are 100% behind Unai Emery and that he will not be sacked.

If this was from anyone else, I would be doubting these reports but as we all know, what Ornstein says is the truth.

So where do we go from here?

We’ve just lost to Leicester City, we’re 9 points off 4th place and our season is already on the way to being a complete disaster. Yet, the people making the big money at the club – Edu, Raul Sanllehi, Vinai Venkatesham and Josh Kroenke, are all supporting a manager who is clearly out of his depth.

The news (via The Athletic) is just depressing.

What are they thinking? Do they not watch the same football we see week in week out? Are they ignoring all the hard statistics which show how awful our season is going? As another club owner has said before, what are they smoking over there at The Emirates?

The other sad part of all of this is that the board seem to think that the discontent from the fans is just ‘noise’ and that basically, what the fans think is irrelevant.

Well, if that’s the case then, we should stop going to the games and show the board that we’re serious in making sure the right decision is made at the club.

Because every man and their dog knows Arsenal are in free fall right now.

The last few weeks have given Arsenal fans an opportunity to reflect on what is happening at the club.

We had a positive summer, brought in Pepe, Ceballos, Luiz and Tierney, and expectations were high. But we’re 10 games into the new season and even well before this point, the vultures (myself included) have called for Unai Emery to be sacked.

I have been vocal in saying that Emery should leave Arsenal. But that’s because I believe that he is struggling at the club and isn’t the right man to take Arsenal forward.

And in saying that, I haven’t been involved in broadcasting any personal abuse or attacks, or left any disgusting comments on the social media profiles of our players or manager.

There is a distinct difference between criticising a manager and player for under performing and not being at the required level, and that is what I have always done. But it’s another thing sending horrible, personal and disgusting abuse to them online – and there is a section of our fanbase who do just that.

But even though I’m not involved in any of the horrendous abuse both Emery and Xhaka have received, I still need to look at myself.

This is what I posted on Twitter last summer, when Arsene Wenger left the club and we brought in Unai Emery:

If Arsenal fans don’t give Unai Emery at least 2 seasons before criticising him, then they aren’t true Arsenal supporters:https://t.co/Qg467noNDC pic.twitter.com/X3pkZLv8sG— Mike (@afc4life_uk) June 6, 2018

What has happened to me?

When I wrote that status, my mind was clear. Arsene Wenger had left Arsenal and it was simple common sense that a new manager, whoever that was going to be, would need time to put his own stamp on the club and implement change. So why, barely after one season have I changed my opinion?

Should I get my act together and stand by my previous convictions?

In Emery’s latest press conference, it was difficult to watch. Here was a person talking about the Wolves match, who also talked about trying his best to get the team to play well and win back the support of the stadium.

And I think the big lesson Arsenal fans need to take away from the last month or so is that the manager, players and staff at the club are all human beings. There is no excuse to leave abuse online to anyone, whether they’re in football or not. We have become so used to social media that some people think it’s okay to send disgusting or vile comments online.

I’ve looked through the comments on Unai Emery’s Twitter and Instagram accounts, and the comments left on there are shameful. The same goes for the comments left on Granit Xhaka’s Instagram page. We all know Mustafi switched off comments on his Instagram page because all he was receiving was constant abuse.Paragraph

I think Arsenal fans have forgotten that we should support our team through thick and thin. The instant nature of Arsenal news and opinion has skewed the whole landscape.

Do you think fan favourites such as David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Martin Keown, Dennis Bergkamp, Ian Wright, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, etc. never had a bad game?

People will remember that Tony Adams had all kinds of issues in the early nineties – imagine what his situation would have been like if there had been social media around? I would hazard a guess that he wouldn’t have come back like he did and win a further 2 Premier League titles and 2 FA Cups. In today’s society, he would have been abused, there’s no doubt about it.

And what about David Seaman? How would have fans reacted online to his mistake in the Cup Winners Cup final in 1995? He would have been vilified like Loris Karius was after his mistakes in a European final. And look where he is now, he was quickly shipped out of Liverpool and that mistake has defined his career.

We all need to think about social media in a more considered light and take a look at ourselves when using it. For Arsenal, there is a bigger picture and we should all be coming together to support the team and the club.