‘Truly pathetic’ and ‘players have let him down’ – Gary Neville rips into Arsenal recruitment, players after Emery sacking

Gary Neville has blasted the Arsenal players for their role in the failures under Unai Emery after he was sacked on Friday.

The Spaniard was in charge since May 2018, but an inability to get the Gunners back into the Champions League and a current seven-game streak without a win has ultimately cost him his job.

SEE MORE: ‘Let’s get to work’ – Ljungberg delivers message to Arsenal fans after Emery exit

Freddie Ljungberg has been put in temporary charge, but it remains to be seen who is appointed as the permanent replacement for Emery by the Arsenal hierarchy in the coming weeks.

Neville though believes that the recruitment at the club and some of the players in the current squad are key reasons as to why Emery has lost his job.

“Without a shadow of a doubt the players have let him down,” he told Sky Sports. “The manager will take the hit, it’s his responsibility to place them into an organised shape, but some of those players – I’ve been critical of my own club over the last few years for their recruitment policy and their strategy, but Arsenal’s is truly pathetic.

“You couldn’t find a more erratic bunch of players in terms of defending to watch. If you said to find three or four most erratic defenders in Europe, it’s almost like that’s the brief for recruitment. The players have let him down but some of them aren’t up to it.”

Neville also hit out at the behaviour towards Emery in recent times being unsavoury with regards to the mocking of his accent, while he also said the former Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain boss will need to take responsibility for his shortcomings too.

However, he expects more of the same problems for Ljungberg in the coming weeks as he singled out individuals such as David Luiz and Granit Xhaka as being problematic.

To his credit, Neville offered a balanced and fair assessment of the situation at Arsenal and gave advice for what it’s worth on what they should be looking to do next to avoid being stuck going round in circles over managers in the coming years.

Time will tell if the board make the right decision with their next appointment, but he makes a valid point on the squad and that is it’s arguably not good enough to achieve the objectives that they’re pursuing.