Season of managerial jostling and uncertainty By Precious Odabi

Every European football season has a running theme that characterizes the affairs of the Season and with the recent exit of Niko Kovac as Bayern Munich coach, it has become Increasingly difficult to ignore the theme of managerial uncertainty that ghostingly shrouds the corridors of Europe’s most prominent clubs in the ongoing 2019/20 season.

Arsenal’s Unai Emery is in the heart of the managerial storm with fans divided over his continuance as Arsenal manager with two premier league wins out of a possible nine(9) games involving loss to newly promoted minnows Sheffield United and draws to Watford, Wolves, and Crystal Palace all transpiring from a winning position. With the acquisition of Centre back David Luiz and left-back Kieran Tierney added to the recently returned from injury Rob holding not enough to curb the defensive shambles at every match with the Gunners conceding 15 Premier League goals already this season and fully on course to Eclipse the 50+ goals conceded last season and the Season before, shambolic consistency for a team vying for a top four finish to guarantee a return to Europe’s Premier club competition (The Uefa Champions League) next season.

The major criticism by Arsenal fans towards the coach isn’t just his team’s “lack of cojones” and game management but the exit from the passing, fluid style of football that characterized his predecessor Arsene Wenger’s stint at the club. Say what you want about Arsene Wenger’s 21 years managerial appointment at Arsenal football club but the words “individual brilliance” rather than “cohesive unit” or “teamplay” wasn’t often used in the description of his team’s weekly performances.

Where Wenger’s-led Arsenal team was described as “beautiful to watch”, his successor Unai emery’s team has been described so often as “pragmatic” “stale” “boring”, and after sensationally spending big in the summer transfer window acquiring much coveted winger Nicholas Pepe for a club-record fee, the onus is on the backroom hierarchy of Raul Sanheli and Edu to make another major statement of intent by terminating the Spaniard contract and appointing fan favourite, club legend and assistant manager Freddie Ljunberg on interim basis or going big by convincing “The special one” Jose mourinho to North London.

Other managers involved in this uncertainty include Manchester United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino, Barcelona’s Valverde and with high profile managerial availability in Allegri,Arsene Wenger and Jose mourinho, we might witness some club managerial shuffling before the end of the 2019/20 season.