Unai Emery

[Rory]

I’m waiting for the press to start trying to unsettle us with rumours of ‘bigger clubs’ poaching Unai.  Only a matter of time I suspect

Why would the press want to unsettle us?

Edit: people wrongly talk about Liverpool having a victim mentality. What the fuck is this, if not that?

Any player or manager who does well outside the Sky 6, gets linked to the Sky 6 if they carry on doing well.

Its not a conspiracy.

Well, yes, that’s how hierarchy works. It’s the idea that there’s a specific agenda against us, a club that nobody cares about, good or bad, that irks me.

I agree with you.

I don't think there's a conspiracy, but it would be daft to claim there hasn't been a media-propagated climate for at least a couple of decades now of manipulating the expectation that successful players and managers will leave a club as soon as they can, if that club is not perceived to be prestigious enough.

Due to the concentration of talent in the PL, both players and managers, I think we could be entering a period of exceptional opportunity where this does not apply.

If every player wants to be in the PL, the likes of Chelsea & Man City can't buy every good one just to stop their rivals from buying them. There are too many.

Likewise, each club only has one manager, so Man City can't both keep Guardiola and tempt Unai from us.

The profile of the division might mean that there is too much quality for any one or two clubs to hoard them, so we could potentially be in an era of equality unprecedented since the money-oriented PL began.

Maybe I'm talking bollocks, but if you were to classify us as a top 6/7 PL club, 10 or 15 years ago, would we still have the best goalkeeper in the world? Would we still have Dougie? Someone would have come in for them, no?

But because of the attraction of the PL and the money involved, the only realistic options are higher-placed PL clubs. But they already have their pick, because the division is awash with talent.

Obviously our owners are intelligent, astute businessmen. Them buying us may have been a surprise to people like SHA fans, 'why spend xmillions on a Championship club?'

But they saw the dominance of the PL, realised we were a recognised 'brand' within it, and that with an investment of maybe £500m (dunno what they've personally invested so far, but doubt it's this), we could go from a club in the doldrums worth £50m to a business worth billions.

[TopDeck113]

Is it voted on? In which case the BeijingRed4Life types might have swelled the numbers.

Remember that account 😂😂😂

It was brilliant. One of my favourites was when then they repeatedly mentioned some poor Indian guy who happed to include RVP in his handle - and his repeated, first desperate and then resigned, protestations that he wasn't someone called van Persie.

[Steve67]

Great post Rory. I agree with you.

[Dante Lavelli]

Is it voted on? In which case the BeijingRed4Life types might have swelled the numbers.

Remember that account 😂😂😂

It was brilliant. One of my favourites was when then they repeatedly mentioned some poor Indian guy who happed to include RVP in his handle - and his repeated, first desperate and then resigned, protestations that he wasn't someone called van Persie.

Booby Charlton RIP

[olaftab]

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/unai-emery-arsenal-aston-villa-premier-league-b2460685.html

[Nii Lamptey]

Been mentioned before (and on other threads), but 'Emeeeeryyyyyy, Emeeeeeryyyyy' echoing around Villa Park under the lights would be something else.

https://x.com/BeardOfTheMatch/status/1697665573100855808?s=20

[Risso]

Bollocks to his sixties. I want us wheeling him out for pressers when he's bedbound and moving toward the light.

Hopefully by then they can keep his brain alive in a jar.

[SamTheMouse]

Great post Rory. I agree with you.

Yep, me too.

[jwarry]

Great post Rory. I agree with you.

Yes excellent post

[Brend'Watkins]

Rory, some good points. It’s a question I’ve always asked myself, what’s the ultimate aim of the owners? Turn us into a major money generating machine, kudos to be involved in the PL, they genuinely love the club?  It’s certainly not a ‘play thing’ for them. I hope they’re here for a very long time to achieve world dominance at least.

[algy]

Great post Rory. I agree with you.

Yes excellent post

Yeah - great post, Rory. Agree with you completely on that. Whilst the PL is far from an egalitarian communist paradise, it has *a lot* of money floating about it, and it's distributed more evenly than any other 'big' league. A side who finishes 17th in the PL can realistically outspend all bar a dozen clubs outside the league. And as you'd mentioned, playing for a mid table premier league side is significantly more attractive than playing for a Champions League qualifier in, say, Germany - see Leon Bailey coming to us from Leverkusen, but there's plenty of other examples.

We're also pretty much guaranteed to have at least one big club not qualify for Europe. Say what you like about their provenance, but Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool, Spurs, Newcastle, us, Arsenal - there's 8 clubs who you'd expect to be playing CL football in any other country, yet we'll only have 8 places if you get an odd situation with English clubs winning European trophies but not quite doing the business in the league. And there's potentially more than one going to miss out if someone like Brighton, Brentford, or West Ham pull off a decent season.

[OCD]

Bollocks to his sixties. I want us wheeling him out for pressers when he's bedbound and moving toward the light.

Hopefully by then they can keep his brain alive in a jar.

Nah, clone him and upload his knowledge.

[Garyth]

world dominance at least.

"At least"?? After that - Solar system dominance?

[KevinGage]

Part of the issue is that you have an increasing amount of young dickheads (to go with the old dickheads) in print and online who can come out with gems such as 'Is this Aston Villa's greatest ever side?' (cleary not) and are proud of themselves. Like a cat who vomits on your doorstep and wants you to admire his art.

Similarly the tosser a few years back in the Mirror's betting section who made reference to something being as bare as Aston Villa's trophy cabinet.

It's not a conspiracy, no. But it is exceptional ignorance.

Who could possibly want to stay at a club like Aston Villa, in their eyes.

[Smirker]

Unai, I love you. Thank you for everything. Please never go. Please stay forever.

I love you.