Gary Neville believes Arsenal's players have been in a comfort zone over recent years and claims new manager Unai Emery will need as many as four transfer windows to get things right at the club.
The Spaniard wasted little time in making new additions after being appointed as the successor to Arsene Wenger in May, with Lucas Torreira, Bernd Leno, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Matteo Guendouzi and Stephan Lichtsteiner all joining.
Arsenal began a new era with a disappointing 2-0 home defeat by reigning champions Manchester City on Sunday and Neville thinks it will take more than one summer to correct the litany of recruitment mistakes made prior to Emery's arrival.
'These players have been in a comfort zone, and that was Arsene Wenger’s fault according to most people, for the last few years but now they have no one else to look at,' he said on Sky Sports.
'If they don't do a job, he [Emery] will get rid of them.'
He added: 'He has to have three or four transfer windows to get this right. Of course he has to, this isn't Chelsea.
'This isn’t short-term. Recruitment has been so bad here that it will take a few transfer windows to sort this out.
'It took Pep [Guardiola] three windows at City. I don’t care who you bring in here. It's going to take a lot.'
Earlier analysing Raheem Sterling's stunning opening goal for City at the Emirates Stadium, Neville pinpointed particular areas that still require notable improvement.
‘I'm just looking at both centre-backs,' he said. 'They're not the quickest and you're asking them to push up the pitch. That's why the two full-backs I think are very narrow, to protect their mates. They're in a bit of a rock and a hard place.
‘The immediate aftermath of that goal was that I think to play this way Unai Emery is going to need the transfer window to sort it out and get the players in to play because at the moment it is very difficult.
'I think with these players... you think of [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan and [Mesut] Ozil, players who can play in wide areas and then get up and support the attack quickly and counter attack? No.
'Centre-backs who can push up the pitch and defend one-on-ones? No. Midfield players who are really good on the ball and can win the ball back? No.’
proverbs
93
The criticism is harsh. We were playing the best team in the country by a country mile who are the defending champions Man City and we only have our new manager for the best part of a month with the players in preseason. Everyone knew going into this new season it'll take time to sort out the mess left by Wenger and get Arsenal up and running again. It take at least a couple of transfer windows for Emery to get the players he really wants to implement his style.
Carybary
90
If Wenger was still in charge it would have been 4/5 nil. The board should have given Emery the full backing financially to bring the players at the very start of the transfer window & sell the players that are not up to scratch. It will take a while for the team to gel collectively & a few transfer windows to clear out the dead wood & bring in the players Emery needs. The team did a lot more chasing & pressurising Man City than anytime over the past few years & on another day they could have had a few goals today.
hotman
82
So who was to blame then Gary? Quite obviously someone was. Things have been going pear shaped at Arsenal for a long, long time. You never was critical of the owners, and never once critical of wenger. In fact you always came out and defended him. Even though tens of thousands of supporter's stayed away because of the manager. It's a bit hypocritical of Gary neville to now say this, because when wenger was manager everything was perfect. He was un_sackable. Poor punditry. The truth is Arsenal have gone backwards through not getting rid of wenger sooner. The damage has been done.
Yorokiri
71
the team is not that bad, for crying out loud they played a team that has being to together for almost 3yrs with the same Coach, a team that won the league with a 19 point difference.. my thought while watching this game was that Emery could do with much younger defenders with pace, the central defenders today were slow on pace but it's too early to criticize them
robscoolkays
46
Gary what are you talking about...??? you think you know it all when you failed in your first management....did you think you needed three to four seasons....biased soccer pundit that's what you are.
Raobkpsy
33
Neville you talk too much mourinho have the money to buy players he like but if mana u can make top four they would have done great
wiuklostz
27
Again it begs the question! What has been happening @Arsenal for the last 10 years even? Nothing related to football!! It takes less than 7 years to produce top draw world class personnel, so where are the green shoots? There's none, no harvest!! And it's not just Arsenal, that's English Football period!! The greed in the game has been driving and destroying the potential of football in England, and further afield for too long. Players are bought and sold for tens and hundreds of millions of fan paying pounds. Players are paid hundreds of thousands of paying fans pounds per week, and yet managers for the most part, also paid incredibly well either haven't got a clue, or they claim they don't have quality players to work with, or the players are genuinely spoilt bone heads!! How is it that over the course of a preseason a group of players and manager cannot put in place some semblance of football? With all their past experiences, conquests and the like? All hype, money, and zero substance.