Gary Neville slams three 'uncoachable' Arsenal players after Emery's sacking

Gary Neville claims Arsenal’s players have been ‘uncoachable’ under Unai Emery following the Gunners’ decision to sack the Spaniard on Friday.

Emery was dismissed at the club’s training ground during a meeting on Friday morning just hours after his side slipped to a 2-1 defeat at home to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League.

Arsenal, who have appointed Freddie Ljungberg as Emery’s interim replacement, are now without a win in seven games in all competitions, their worst run of form since February 1992.

But Neville believes Arsenal’s defenders are to blame for Emery’s departure.

‘It has been messy, let’s be clear about this, these defenders like [Shkodran] Mustafi, Sokratis and [David] Luiz are uncoachable,’ Neville told Sky Sports News.

‘I don’t know who has been responsible for recruitment over the last few years, but if I was on the board at Arsenal I would be giving them a right rocketing.

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‘There’s no way Emery is telling [David] Luiz to step up two, three times to catch a player offside, or even some of the hideous things you see from other defenders.

‘You see what happened with [Granit] Xhaka the other week, Emery is a man of honour and this runs far deeper than just the coach.

‘He might be feeling quite happy to leave behind what is quite simply an average bunch of players.’

Neville also suggested that Arsenal’s recruitment strategy needs a drastic improvement and believes the club need to appoint a long-term manager who can ‘live through these difficult times’.

‘The first thing a board should do when they sack a manager is reflect upon what they’ve done and reflect upon how they’ve gone about things – what do we need to do to make sure that we’re not in this position in the future so Arsenal fans are happy?

‘What Arsenal have always been is quite responsible in their decision making, always been loyal, there might have been the odd moment where they weren’t, but generally it’s been a football club that’s been run well and always had a steady ship.

‘It’ll be interesting to see now whether because of the long reign of Arsene Wenger and now they’ve sacked a manager in a quick time after it, whether they get caught on the roundabout and spinning for the next few years.

‘That will be something I’m sure they are working hard to resist. The main thing the Arsenal board need to do is ensure they are not sacking another manager in 12-18 months, then sacking another, because it just will not work.

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‘It’ll cost them more money, not just in sacking the manager and their respective [coaching] teams, but also in terms of recruitment idea and the players who are brought in.

‘I’d imagine a new manager now will come in and want to wipe out half of that dressing room. That costs money, and the reality is they want to bring their own players in, and they should do as well.

‘The recruitment at Arsenal has been strange for a number of years, they haven’t got it right in a number of areas.

‘There’s two things they need to do – get their recruitment right but second put someone in place who can live through these difficult times and transition from a difficult moment to a good moment.

‘You think of the job Mauricio Pochettino did at Tottenham it wasn’t the best squad when he took over but he was able to manipulate that squad for not a lot of money into something very good. Essentially Arsenal need that same type of person who is capable of doing that.’