Arsenal may be considering sacking Unai Emery as manager, but it will be a lot cheaper to let him go at the end of the season than now.
The Spaniard is going through an extremely difficult time as Gunners boss, with his side failing to win any of their last six games in all competitions.
The poor string of results and performances has seen Emery’s side drop to eighth in the Premier League and be eliminated from the Carabao Cup.
It has also seen fans, players and the board lose face in the manager’s methods and talk of him being sacked growing ever louder and more persistent.
The club held a crisis meeting with Emery after Saturday’s dreadful draw with Southampton at the Emirates and are now in fear of a number of players leaving at the first opportunity.
Emery being sacked looks inevitable, but the Arsenal hierarchy may be put off giving him the boot by the huge payout it would cost them.
The Daily Mail reports that sacking Emery before the end of the season would cost the Gunners at least £4m, however, letting him go in the summer would cost nothing.
The 48-year-old signed a two-year deal at the Emirates in the summer of 2018, with the club holding an option to extend it for a further year.
If the board chose not to extend his contract by 12 months, then Emery could be let go for free,
The decision-makers in the Arsenal boardroom are going to have to carry out some cost-benefit analysis as they work out what is best for the club in the short and long term.
Max Allegri and Mikel Arteta are thought to be realistic candidates to replace Emery in the Emirates dugout, although latest reports suggest the former is losing interest in the job with Arsenal not competing for the Premier League title or competing at all in the Champions League.
Even without a clear replacement, Emery needs to conjure up some much-improved results and do it very quickly to have much chance of holding onto his job beyond December.
His first chance to do so is at home to Frankfurt in the Europa League on Thursday night before a Premier League trip to Norwich on Sunday.
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