Emery can make a wizard of Ozil

WITH a ho-hum managerial appointment, new signings they had to Google and their highest-paid player embroiled in a race row, Arsenal fans can be forgiven for wondering just what the coming season has in store.
When the immovable monolith of Arsene Wenger was finally extracted from his kingdom, relief among Gooners was tempered by a sense of trepidation.
As the heavy lifting gear was removed and the SWAT teams stood down, they waited anxiously to see just who would take his place.
Long managerial reigns are awfully hard acts to follow. Just ask Manchester United where history seems to be repeating itself with the post-Fergie era bearing an uncanny resemblance to the post-Busby years.
Leeds after Don Revie, Forest after Brian Clough and Spurs after Bill Nicholson have all seen the number of hapless successors exceed the years those late legends enjoyed at the helm.
Only at Liverpool, where long-standing No. 2 Bob Paisley managed to surpass the immortal Bill Shankly in silverware did a high-profile succession go smoothly.
If case studies offer scant cause for optimism, those who welcomed Unai Emery did so mainly because he wasn't Mikel Arteta.
The former midfielder had been a popular player and was so close to joining he was assembling his back room staff.
But as a rookie, he was hardly the stellar managerial name Gooners were hoping for and the hierarchy also had doubts before a late change of heart. Emery had managed to impress even with barely any English.
Had the new man come straight from Sevilla, where he'd masterminded almost a Europa League monopoly on a low budget, there might have been more enthusiasm. But handed the poisoned chalice of PSG, his career had stalled.
He won Ligue Un but any Park de Princes ballboy could have done that with the Qatar zillions. The big test was the Champions League which he failed.
In mitigation there was Neymar's injury and just Neymar – who has a direct line to the president, can't be tackled in training and can elope to Brazil any time he likes.
The sheer impossibility of building team spirit let alone producing coherent football with all those egos has to be taken into account when judging the manager's performance.
But since he's been in London he's stepped out of those long shadows and been very much his own man. Undeterred by a budget as modest as expectations, he has made his presence felt both on the pitch and in the transfer window.
Arsenal players have confided that training has been a lot tougher and more organised than in previous seasons. And judging by his recruitment, he must have been watching Arsenal closely: he has added much-needed bite to the defence and midfield.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Lucas Torreira, Bernd Leno, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Matteo Guendouzi have all made the move to the Emirates and none are shrinking violets. Leno might even challenge Petr Cech for the gloves if David Ospina makes his expected departure.
But it is a stroke of man-management that has impressed most of all. Although still nowhere near fluent in English, he has stamped his authority on the squad and may have turned a potential crisis into a brilliant solution.
When Mesut Ozil decided to retire from international football, disgusted at being made the scapegoat for Germany's miserable failure at the World Cup, his career hung in the balance.
Any remotely similar treatment with its racial overtones in London might have seen him repair to Turkey, the country of his ancestors.
But he need not have worried. Where Germany was divided, his club was united and all the players expressed their unflinching support. And up stepped Emery, seizing the moment brilliantly, to make him captain.
Ozil has never been this column's favourite player and the word "languid" might have been his middle name. But the stats belie our eyes – even during those games when we wonder if he's still on the field, he invariably ends up with most passes, the most shots and has even been known to make the odd tackle.
At his best, he's a beguiling creator and regularly tops the assists table while popping in a few goals himself.
He certainly wasn't the only letdown in Russia – Thomas Muller, Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels are but a few that come to mind, but they were not pilloried or had their loyalties questioned like Ozil.
This was not the first time the World Cup winner had sensed an ambivalence towards him among the German football fraternity about which he delivered the powerful and unforgettable line: "I am German when we win, an immigrant when we lose."
Bayern president Uli Hoeness, who served a jail sentence for tax evasion, led the critics, claiming: "He's been sh*t for years." To that Ozil would have been quite at liberty to retort: "Well, at least I pay my taxes."
It is too early to tell whether the extra responsibility is going to remain and no one should expect him to turn into a Marco Veratti just because he's wearing the armband. But without international football to worry about and given such wholehearted backing by his club, he knows where his loyalties lie. It could be the making of him.
Emery plans to rotate the captaincy but if the response is favourable, it could be the making of a more promising season than had looked possible.
After all, the Gunners do carry a fair bit of firepower in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the underdone Alexandre Lacazette.
With a stiffened rearguard and Ozil firing, they could surprise a few this season. At this stage, top four with a return to the Champions League does not look beyond them.