Unai Emery

[Toronto Villa]

It's been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano so as solid as it gets. Barcelona fans seem to rate him very highly

[Brazilian Villain]

It's been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano so as solid as it gets. Barcelona fans seem to rate him very highly

Plus he speaks Spanish.

[Toronto Villa]

It's been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano so as solid as it gets. Barcelona fans seem to rate him very highly

Plus he speaks Spanish.

critical for all of the Spanish speaking players we will have at the club come August. And I heard the tea lady and groundskeeper have been taking lessons in preparation. I expect la Rojigualda to flying above the Trinity and out third kit to red and gold.

[KevinGage]

Hmm.

I don't look at Barcelona's signings over the last few years and think unbelievable business.

Actually, signing ex Boro flop Martin Braithwaite for big darts was unbelievable. Was that under him?

[Toronto Villa]

a video about him

[Bad English]

It's been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano so as solid as it gets. Barcelona fans seem to rate him very highly

Plus he speaks Spanish.

Tsk! His second language though.

[caster troy]

Hmm.

I don't look at Barcelona's signings over the last few years and think unbelievable business.

Actually, signing ex Boro flop Martin Braithwaite for big darts was unbelievable. Was that under him?

I think Braithwaite was a couple of years before him.

[Brazilian Villain]

It's been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano so as solid as it gets. Barcelona fans seem to rate him very highly

Plus he speaks Spanish.

critical for all of the Spanish speaking players we will have at the club come August. And I heard the tea lady and groundskeeper have been taking lessons in preparation. I expect la Rojigualda to flying above the Trinity and out third kit to red and gold.

Not only that, Unai has encouraged all our players to learn the words to the Spanish national anthem.

[VILLA MOLE]

Oooh do you think they will serve Tapas , all be it badly at halftime??

[ChicagoLion]

Oooh do you think they will serve Tapas , all be it badly at halftime??

They have already  learnt mañana.

[lovejoy]

Oooh do you think they will serve Tapas , all be it badly at halftime??

As a Basque, Unai would have Pintxos. Named after the toothpick thing holding them together.

[Brazilian Villain]

Hmm.

I don't look at Barcelona's signings over the last few years and think unbelievable business.

I thought that but the general consensus seems to be that he's done a very good job at Barca building a title winning team despite reducing the debt.

Had a quick look at Twitter and from what I saw..
- The Barca fans are gutted he's going, some saying this is worse news than Messi leaving.
- The reason for his departure seems to be the board's (and manager's) desire to bring Messi back, whereas he wants to be more practical from a footballing and financial perspective i.e. not a man for vanity or nostalgia signings.
- Highly respected and considered top 5 in the World at what he does, if not the best. Extensive list of contacts in Spanish and World football. 
- Known as a ruthless negotiator when it comes to dealing with agents and other clubs. Not an area we've been weak in so far but still welcome news.
- Will be considered quite the coup if we get him. https://twitter.com/Millar_Colin/status/1653496657835708419

In short, exciting news and after the appointment of Unai, would be a statement of intent by the owners that they aren't here to f*ck around. 

[Dave]

F365 have done one of their occasionally amusing "ranking the performance of all 40 (!) Premier League managers this season"

Our bits...

38) Steven Gerrard, Aston Villa (31)
We genuinely thought he was going to be good because he was good at Rangers. We’re mainly disappointed in ourselves for falling for it. A lesson learned. The big problem, as well as just the general ropeyness, was that no matter how much he insisted otherwise, Gerrard clearly viewed Villa as a means to an end and loaded the squad with short-termist oldsters and left quite a mess for Unai Emery to sort out. To make matters even worse for Gerrard, Emery has promptly gone and done precisely that. It’s a double whammy.

...

17) Aaron Danks, Aston Villa (18)
A genuinely magnificent two-game interregnum for the Villa caretaker, featuring a 4-0 win over Brentford and a 4-0 defeat at Newcastle. That might well be the entirety of his Premier League managerial career, and the effort to render it into a literal, physical manifestation of the Gennaro Gattuso ‘sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit’ meme should be heartily applauded.

...

1)  Unai Emery, Aston Villa (7)
Absolutely spectacular. On a table since his appointment, Aston Villa are third. And deservedly third. On the actual table a team he joined in relegation bother is only outside the top six on goal difference. Villa are rumbling along at two points a game under Emery over what is now a sample size greater than half a season; in current Premier League managerial lifespans that’s an eternity.

Villa’s early and decisive move to replace Steven Gerrard has been entirely vindicated, allowing them to first watch on with detached amusement as the relegation free-for-all played out beneath them before their own form and the collapse of others allowed Villa to look beyond mid-table.

Villa never had a squad as bad as Gerrard was making it look, but you’d have been earmarked as a crazy person if you said out loud in September that it looked like a team capable of two points per game. Maybe nobody could have succeeded at Arsenal straight after Arsene Wenger and events at the Emirates suggest they were right to move Emery on but he was never a bad manager – he wasn’t a bad Arsenal manager, not really – and it’s genuinely heartwarming to see his second attempt at Premier League management go so well.

It also blows our tiny minds that he is already the 12th longest-serving current manager in the top flight having taken over way back in the dim and distant times of six months ago.

Some good lines in the whole piece, mainly at Spurs and Chelsea's expense.

[DB]

Oooh do you think they will serve Tapas , all be it badly at halftime??

As a Basque, Unai would have Pintxos. Named after the toothpick thing holding them together.

Yeees, I'm now mentally in a bar in San Sebastian....

[SamTheMouse]

F365 have done one of their occasionally amusing "ranking the performance of all 40 (!) Premier League managers this season"

This is the only manager ranking table you need:

https://twitter.com/_CarltonCole9/status/1653677507554467840?s=20

With Big Sam Allardyce returning to the Premier League, he has reclaimed his top spot on the list of “Premier League managers ranked on how likely they are to eat a packet of crisps whilst on the toilet"