Unai Emery revealed the one player who did not say goodbye to him after he was sacked as Arsenal manager.
The Spaniard was dismissed at the end of November following a 2-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League, with poor fortunes in both the Premier League and Europe heaping pressure on the board to make a change.
Emery reveals player that didn’t bid him farewell after his departure
The former-Arsenal manager confirmed that Lucas Torreira was the only player not to say goodbye to him after he was sacked. The midfielder was a consistent figure in Emery’s side, operating at the base of the midfield following a £27million move from Sampdoria in 2018.
In an interview with Guillem Balague, Emery spoke about Torreira when touching on his time at the Gunners and the moment he was sacked. The Spaniard said he asked the players to visit him individually to bid their farewells after the club’s decision but revealed that Torreira did not attend.
“It all happened on a Friday morning I was told. We said goodbye to the footballers,” Emery said.
“I told Raul that I’d prefer the footballers to come to me individually instead of me going to the changing room and making a speech.
“And they all came, apart from Lucas Torreira. He couldn’t make it but left us a message.
“He was receiving a massage at that moment but all the players came. I also got messages from Koscielny and from Welbeck and I thank them all. But now is the time to go home.”
‘I believe it is a good decision,’ Emery backs Arteta to make impact at Emirates
Asked about Arsenal’s decision to appoint Mikel Arteta as his permanent replacement following Freddie Ljungberg’s interim period in charge of the club, Emery tipped the former-Manchester City assistant to make a telling impact at the Emirates.
“He really is prepared to make that next jump.”
“He has been at Arsenal before, he’s been in the Premier League and he has been working with Pep Guardiola. I do believe this is a good decision and I would also like it to be a good decision.”
Arteta fell to defeat in his first home game since taking charge of the club as Frank Lampard’s Chelsea produced a dramatic late turn around to win 2-1 at the Emirates. The result reflected the scale of the job on Arteta’s hands, with individual errors and poor decision making undoing what had been a thoroughly impressive 80 minutes.
Albeit in a precarious position in the league, far off the top-four places they had originally targeted before the season, there are plenty of positive signs in the opening weeks of Arteta’s Arsenal reign.