Unai Emery - our manager

[Chap]

Had our win percentage been the same in the first 11 games to Unai’s 25, then we would potentially been on 73 points and in The CE.

[Ger Regan]

In my all my adult life supporting the club I have never had as much faith in a manager as I do with Unai. There'll be bumps along the way, but I'm all in, this is our time.

[LeeB]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/29/premier-league-2022-23-review-managers-of-the-season

Honestly,  I read it but I hate the Guardian

[Monty]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/29/premier-league-2022-23-review-managers-of-the-season

Honestly,  I read it but I hate the Guardian

Oh the little hipster fucks. Marco Silva indeed! I mean he's done absolutely fine, but come on.

[LeeB]

The bit about the fact De Zerbi didn't start the season with Brighton makes it more impressive really got to me. Yeah? Well try starting in November in 17th place, and which manager again has beaten fanny face twice this season?

A pox on them, maybe Jonathan Wilson will do a piece on us soon if he can remove himself from Pep's arse

[Monty]

My reaction to that list went as follows: Guardiola (fine), de Zerbi (sure), Howe (can't deny it), Gary O'Neil (er...), Marco Silva (excuse me what).

Any article Wilson does on us will be sure to include three soporific paragraphs on obscure Sunderland who-gives-a-fucks. 'Of course, all clubs have their glory days - for Sunderland, it was the days of Billy Twimbling which blah blah blah'.

[Risso]

Pep Guardiola should automatically be excluded. He's got three teams worth of the best players in the world, and cheated to get them. And he's a twat. I'd rather give it to Nathan Jones or Fat Fwank.

Emery, De Zerbi and Frank have all done brilliant jobs with teams in the top half, but Emery stands out for the sheer magnitude of the change he brought about. Howe's obviously done very well too.

Then you have to give credit to the likes of Cooper, O'Neill and Silva, because for all three promoted teams to stay up is a job well done and great for football.

My totally unbiased, non-partisan top managers of the year:

1- Unai Emery. The best manager in the world, never mind Europe or the Premier League. Needs a 25 year contract and the Witton Lane stand renaming in his honour.
2 - De Zerbi. Has done a really good job and his team play great football.
3 - Howe. Got the Geordies in the Champions League without yet going mental in the transfer market.
4 - O'Neill. Kept them up relatively comfortably, with a team that were getting routinely battered. Didn't get to change the team much either.
5 - Cooper. Did well to keep them up, after a shopping spree second only to Chelsea's in its craziness.
6 - Silva. Best of the promoted teams and a top half finish was very decent.
7 - Arteta. Decent stab at the title but was always going to lose out to the Fraud Machine. Loses points for being a twat as well.

Everybody else did about par for the course or were disappointing/shit/beyond terrible (Ten Hag, Klopp, Potter, Lampard)

[cdward]

https://www.premierleague.com/video/single/3493027
Osman: Villa can be European trophy contenders
Leon Osman suggests Aston Villa can win silverware with Unai Emery after qualifying for the UEFA Europa Conference League.

To counter that Guardian article, at least Leon Osman knows what he is talking about, mentions the fact that Emery took over much later than DeZerbi.

[eamonn]

Disappointed that VillaTV doesn't seem to have footage of the lap of honour and speeches from post-match yesterday nor of the club awards night during the week.

They're usually reliable at capturing as much televisual content as possible. What gives?

[SoccerHQ]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/29/premier-league-2022-23-review-managers-of-the-season

Honestly,  I read it but I hate the Guardian

Oh the little hipster fucks. Marco Silva indeed! I mean he's done absolutely fine, but come on.

Most people at start of season had Fulham going straight back down. Most people at start of season would've had us 9th or 10th I think so going by that he's outperformed their league xG or whatever more than us although of course it's not as simple as that.

I think despite the sackings half of the managers in the league have done really good jobs this season. Howe, Emery, De Zerbi, Silva, Frank and Cooper all met or massively exceeded their August or November targets.

Personally I'd give manager of year award to Gary O'Neil as would've had Bournemouth 20th at start of season so minor miracle he kept them up so comfortably in the end.

[pauliewalnuts]

De Zerbi has done an outstanding job, too, however:

UE: P25 - W:15 D:4 L:7 = 49 points in 25 games
RDZ: P32 - W:14 D:7 L:11 = 49 points in 32 games.

Emery picked up the same points tally in 7 games fewer, and what's more, he joined a club in 17th, De Zerbi joined a club which had won 4 of their first 6 matches.

[Somniloquism]

I was about to make a similar point Paulie. De Zerbi didn't take over a club in relegation trouble and with no identity on the pitch. In fact when he came in Brighton had a shit record before the World cup under him. Still he gave us 6 points so we should be happy at the job he has done there.

[KevinGage]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/29/premier-league-2022-23-review-managers-of-the-season

Honestly,  I read it but I hate the Guardian

Gary O'Neil for me (would like it even more if he could spell his own name right). Followed by De Zerbi, Unai and then Howe.

All of those have overachieved with what they have, but Bournemouth massively so.

With their financial doping and contempt for governance of any sort Guardiola can get facked. If you rig the system that much in your favour, winning the league by a mere five points is not much to crow about.

[clash city rocker]

For years we have mainly lived in a cesspit of despair. One man changed all that just one man. With the same players plus one and the team he brought with him just proves how vital a decent manager is. Mr Emery I salute you.

[Toronto Villa]

I’ve got no issue with Eddie Howe being recognized but have to remember he took Newcastle to 11th in his first season, not into Europe. What Emery has done with that side that just got flattened at Newcastle in a quite abject display is incredible. And even though the cup defeats were under his watch it taught him so much about who we were and what we had. He turned that lot into CL contenders on form.