Unai Emery will not replicate Pep Guardiola's free-flowing football at Arsenal but the disciplined Spaniard is exactly what the Gunners need, according to Terry Gibson.
Gibson, the former Manchester United striker who is now an expert on Spanish football, has been following Emery's managerial career since he began with third-tier Lorca in 2005, and he believes the new Arsenal boss will add much-needed structure and discipline to the squad.
"He's an intense coach. I have spoken to players who've worked under him and they've said he's relentless," Gibson told Standard Sport. "He's really methodical. Training can be repetitive. There's no respite for the players. Training sessions are long, very organised. When you see him on the touchline, he is pointing, kicking every single ball. And I've been told he's like that to work with every single day.
"He's rigid in approach. I've very rarely seen him stray from the 4-2-3-1 system and his style is more about a defensive shape than pressing. He's quite conservative in approach. He's not like the coaches in Spain who want to attack and commit players forward. He's not going to do what Pep has done at Manchester City – it will be rigid and organised.
"It's something that Arsenal need – that intensity on a daily basis that probably wasn't there at the end of Arsene Wenger's reign. It will be interesting to see who can take it and who can't. He isn't a tough task master in terms of discipline but he's all about hard work. It depends whether the players are prepared to do that."
Emery took Valencia into the Champions League before winning an unprecedented three consecutive Europa League titles with Sevilla, and he was recruited by PSG in summer 2016 to help the club achieve the holy grail of the Champions League.
But the 47-year-old could not extract the best from a star-studded squad in Paris and his two-year spell at the Parc des Princes was overshadowed by two dismal exits in the Champions League knock-outs and tension with world-record signing Neymar.
"I could never imagine it would work with Neymar, knowing how Emery approaches the game," Gibson said. "I always had this vision of Unai Emery on Neymar's back every day, pulling him into position, screaming and shouting at him on the touchline. But he didn't – he had to change because of the people he was dealing with.
"At Arsenal, with the players they've got and the position they're in, he can go there and be his usual self. It depends whether the players fancy double training sessions where they're working hard as a team."
Emery will work under head of recruitment Sven Mislintat and head of football operations Raul Sanhelli at the Emirates Stadium, and he is expected to take a back seat over transfers – unlike his predecessor Arsene Wenger.
"At Sevilla, he worked for the best sporting director in Europe in Monchi Rodriguez," Gibson said. "He'll be fine working with a director of football. He doesn't suffer fools gladly. That'll be true regarding the players and regarding the recruitment team. His standing in the game now is completely different to when he was coach of Lorca. If he doesn't agree with anything, he will stand his ground.
"He deserves enormous credit for Sevilla's three consecutive Europa League titles. Sevilla weren't buying from the top drawer. They brought Steven N'Zonzi from Stoke for £7million – that's the market they were working in. He had to go through a process of building, cashing in on players, then rebuilding the following season. That's what Monchi and Sevilla did. His team over the three years changed every season. He had to deal with that but he trusted the sporting director."