On the flight back from Arsenal’s Europa League game at Vitoria Guimareas earlier this month, Unai Emery sat alone on the team’s private plane.

He was deep in thought after the Gunners had surrendered another lead to draw 1-1, yet around him the mood was rather different.

Jokes at his expense were made within the Spaniard’s earshot. “How many captains do we have?” said one, in reference to Emery’s appointment of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the new figurehead of his five-man leadership group following Granit Xhaka’s demotion.

The players openly mocked his accent and broken English. They have done for some time, not just in thinly-veiled social media ‘likes’ but by breaking out into various Emery impressions around London Colney.

By the end, the Spaniard had simply lost control. It is a sign of just how low Emery’s stock had fallen that the man hailed as King of the Europa League ends up departing after a 2-1 group stage defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt.

This morning’s decision, however, was a long time coming. The failure to qualify for last season’s Champions League by taking just four points from their final five matches before being humiliated by Chelsea in the Europa League Final began to cast doubt over Emery’s long-term ability to take the club forward.

A positive summer transfer window was undermined by Laurent Koscielny forcing his way out of the club, compounding the departures of Petr Cech and Aaron Ramsey from his previous captains’ group.

A ludicrously drawn out process followed in which Emery attempted to keep an increasingly fragmented dressing room happy by allowing the players to choose their own leaders but in the end it only undermined the sense of power he had over them.

In ever increasing desperation, Emery changed formations and players in a bid to freshen things up. He has used more players (35) and made more half-time substitutions (32) than any other Premier League manager.

Those substitutions were initially viewed as a strength, replacing Arsene Wenger’s painfully predictable style of making changes on the hour mark almost regardless of each game’s course of events, but gradually it became clear these changes were reflective of a manager lacking consistency of thought.

Communication was a big problem. Bukayo Saka admitted in September that “sometimes when I don’t understand when the coach is trying to communicate with me, I have a better communication with Freddie [Ljungberg]”.

He is not the only one.

Training ground sources speak of meetings with Emery taking much longer than usual due to confusion over the message he is trying to convey. Others speak of a lack of contact altogether; one player privately admitted that he had more communication via text with an ex-manager than he did with Emery. He made little time to get to know longstanding staff at London Colney. Six months into the job, Emery conducted an interview at a club media day and thanked his translator at the end by calling him the wrong name.

Emery dispensed with his translator for the start of his second season but his English teacher sat in on press conferences, marking his performance for review at future sessions.

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Odds: 13/1 AFP via Getty Images 5/9 Eddie Howe Position: Bournemouth boss



Odds: 19/1 Getty Images 6/9 Freddie Ljungberg Position: Arsenal coach



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And although he became more confident, he rarely made more sense. This is not to disregard the difficulties of speaking in a second language but more to underline a lack of deep understanding which prompted many players to switch off in meetings or fail to arm to his personality.

Emery is not unlikeable, he was perhaps not fully understood. That said. Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette had made it clear that they would not be signing new contracts while Emery was still in charge. Similarly, Emery’s judgement over players was questioned by the club’s hierarchy after he pushed for the disastrous loan signing of Denis Suarez from Barcelona last January.

Emery started by making the players leaner and fitter, installing a pitchside gym and reinvigorating training.

The players were initially encouraged but infamously long video sessions began to grow tiresome and central tactics — such as playing out from the back —

simply did not suit those that he had at his disposal.

A failure to spend sufficient time drilling the team defensively infuriated some other staff members.

Emery never fully settled in England, regularly returning to his hometown of Hondarribia when the fixture list allowed and not often spotted out locally. He is said to favour one restaurant in St Albans but rarely spoke of hobbies or leisure pursuits.

In the end, he was alone.