Unai Emery

[Walmley_Villa]

Winning europa would be my preferred outcome this season (ignoring winning the league).

= Silverware and CL bounty next season

I want us to qualify for CL through the league, as otherise well bottle the Europa league - were not good if too much rides on a game

That is the thing we seem to bottle big games, an issue with the mentality that Unai needs them to overcome.

I must of missed those three league wins in a row at home to Man City, or two out of three at home to Arsenal, or beating Man Utd at home twice in the last four seasons when we hadn’t beaten them at home in 27/28 years. Beating PSG at home and giving them their hardest game on their champions league run was another that passed me by….beating Bayern……coming from 1-3 down to draw with Liverpool…..,beating Chelsea away in 3 out of the last 4 seasons. Massive bottling twats

I’m talking about the ones where we are arguably favourites to win, Olympiakos, Palace SF, Utd last season. Unai said in his notes that yesterday was a big game.

[andyh]

I think if Unai had to work under financial constraints because of our owners were tightfisted and were reluctant to back him or gave him meagre funds, then yes I think he could easily be tempted elsewhere.

But nothing could be further from the truth. The owners would give him the moon if he wanted it.
He is backed to the hilt, he is loved and respected.

I doubt he will go anywhere until he has achieved his goals for our club.

[Beard82]

I think the bottling - which was a bit of a lazy comment by me - is more about when there is too much pressure on 1 game.  We have shown time and again we can beat anyone and it’s been amazing. 

But I think most villa fans felt Sunday had a sense of Deja vue - and opportunity was there for us and we put in a stinker. 

Going second and adding more points against the chasing pack would have been huge. 

But clearly we’re still in an amazing position and i still fancy us to have a brilliant season

[Crown Hill]

And nobody has mentioned the Manager of the Month curse!

[Beard82]

Ha yeah - when I saw he’d won it I thought - here we go

[DrGonzo]

You can’t imagine that any of the squad were happy to see Malen leave, let alone the gaffer who has lost good only other CF option. It’s endlessly frustrating that we can’t back the best manager we’ve had (ever?) in the way he deserves. See also “Man City 115 charges” but still able to throw money at every problem…

[Sexual Ealing]

Simon Jordan is a twat. There, I've had my say.

[eamonn]

I think Unai has worked miracles on our mentality as a club. I sense the players are able to go up against any team and not fear them. His planning is obviously tactical but the consistency we have shown over three seasons (against all odds) has to be in part a positive mentality. We have won so many games from behind and made Villa Park a fortress. We have lost some important games, but don't all teams. That positive mentality will be tested yet again during the Jan transfer window. Like all the others it seems we are sent into chaos because of PSR problems. Hopefully we come through this window and get back on track in Feb. Unai and this squad deserve some silverware and so do the owners.

You come up from the south coast for every game, you deserve it more than any of the above.

[Garyth]

Clearly, Emery has been sensational for us, just extraordinary, but are we saying that he had no say in our summer recruitment which was simply terrible.

If he walks away because 'What's the point?' then he should accept that he has some responsibility in that too...

To add a bit of balance to these sort of fears, I find some comfort in that there's clearly a review process that happens and lessons (attempted to be) learned. This can be seen in comments like "We made mistakes...", or even Mochi leaving.

I think Emery would be much more likely to leave if there was no sign of adjustment or plans to do better (himself included).

Whether or not we see it in practice is another thing. Within the constraints of the situation it's not a shock if things go wrong occasionally - the real problem is that if we see the same mistakes happen repeatedly.