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Lauren: "If you want to win the league, you have to fight with the same weapons"
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Reading Time: 5min | Wed. 28.04.21. | 15:08
Former Cameroon and Arsenal right back believes Arsenal owners need to change their approach on how to run the Emirates club
In two days, in what seems to be Arsenal's biggest game of the season so far, Gunners will face Villarreal in Europa League semi-final and with that go head-to-head against former manager Unai Emery who is in charge of the 'Yellow Submarine'.
In the Premier League, Arsenal are currently where they do not want to be, outside the top four. Far outside.
Mid-table is where a member of the Arsenal's Invincibles, Lauren, is not accustomed of seeing himself during his Gunner days.
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As far as the direction of the club and the style of play, at the moment Arsenal are at a crossroads - there is a combination of gifted youngsters and stars in their prime who want to take the leadership. It is all well and good but a club of such stature demands results and trophies.
According to Lauren, it is vital for Arsenal to return to Champions League.
Laureano Bisan-Etame Mayer, commonly known as Lauren, played as a part of Arsenal’s all-conquering Invincibles. Cameroonian is convinced they Arsenal can beat Villarreal and qualify for the Europa League final.
“The table says that Arsenal are a long way behind,” said Lauren. “But I think the team in some periods, they play brilliant games, play very good football and have some outstanding young players.
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“Bukayo Saka is absolutely brilliant, Emile Smith-Rowe can play any position, he plays it simple, makes the right pass at the right moment. Bukayo doesn’t rush his game.
“But those two players and the other young players need other big players to fulfil their potential and they need the team to progress.
“If they want to catch up, they have to make a real effort to build in the long term with more top players. You can’t compete with Manchester City, Chelsea, if you want to win the league you have to fight with the same weapons.
“You can’t win the league against City when they have De Bruyne, Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, Gundogan, they’ve got so many top players in their squad. You have to build and try to catch them.
“You need to play the Champions League every single year, that will give you the tools and ability to attract those players in order to win the league. Honestly, we are one step behind Manchester City, Chelsea or even Liverpool. Unless you have the tools, then you can’t win the league.”
In seven years with Arsenal, six at Highbury and only one at then newly built Emirates stadium, Lauren participated in winning the Double, two Premier League titles, the FA Cup three times.
After years of struggling to remain a top four club. former right back now asks the Arsenal fanbase if they appreciate Arsen Wenger's accomplishments more.
“Now we understand when people were criticising Arsene Wenger for only reaching the Champions League,” said Lauren. “But he did it every single year and you would then get back the tools you need to compete with the top clubs and remain a top club.”
Unfortunately for Lauren, he failed to reach any European success with the Gunners. Injury caused for him to miss the 2006 Champions League campaign and the final against Barcelona.
“I would have swapped all my 50 odd games played in the Champions League just to play in the final. In my time at the club, we didn’t get past the quarter final. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
“We beat Chelsea in the league, in the cup, every game. Then we lost in the Champions League. Unbelievable. We had the best team in the league but I always say you need experience to win the Champions League. Any lapse in concentration and you’re out.”
Lauren is now career-chasing in Spain - he works as a pundit for La Liga TV and at the same time working on acquiring his coaching badges. He plans on completing his UEFA Pro Licence next.
When discussing Arsenal's next rival, Villareal, and their manager Unai Emery, Lauren fails to understand why the former Arsenal, Sevilla and PSG coach did not succeed at Emirates.
“Emery is a very good coach, did brilliantly with Sevilla so I was surprised it didn’t work,” he said.
“He is so focused on detail, maybe some players would get fed-up watching so many videos and my impression from the outside is that players don’t always want that.
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Lauren (©Richard Heathcote/Gallo Images)“You also need communication with players and the language is so important. You need one-to-one talks with players and that is an issue. It has to be. But there are normally many issues rather than just one.
“You have the perfect example with Gary Neville. He has all my respect - fantastic player, great competitor and talks so well - but he couldn’t communicate with players at Valencia and it didn’t work.
“Villarreal are so well organised. Dani Parejo in the middle of the park, Gerard Moreno is very good - you can play him as a No9, wide - and the two centre backs, Pau Torres and Raul Albiol, are very strong. But if Arsenal are at their best and the players are fit, I think they will win.”
With the whole European Super League fiasco and the scandal with Kroenke owners, Lauren thinks that bringing back Arsenal legends to take part in running the club would be perfect for the club.
Cameroonian says he always felt that Patrick Vieira would move into management and that he understands why Thierry Henry is so passionate about helping the club.
“Henry is a real winner. He is so committed about everything. We would play cards on the bus and he wanted to win. He brought a little game in the dressing room called ‘pull it and pop it’ and he always wanted to win. He became the top scorer because of that mentality.
“I never expected Freddie Ljungberg to become a manager - he was more into fashion! I always thought Patrick Vieira would become a manager. A great leader. He has the personality to lead the dressing room. But you couldn’t fail to learn from that dressing room.”
Thursday evening will be the stage for both semifinal first legs of Europa League. Arsenal's rivalry with Manchester United had much more gravity during Lauren's years in London and now both teams have the chance to potentially face each other in the final and win the second best European club trophy.
EUROPA LEAGUE - Semi finals
Thursday
First leg
22.00: Manchester United - Roma
22.00: Villareal - Arsenal
Secong leg to be played on the 6th of May
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