Unai Emery - our manager

[dicedlam]

Who's David Reed?

Haha!

[RamboandBruno]

2023 Premier League table, all have played 30 league games apart from Newcastle with 29.

1 Man City 71 points
2 Arsenal 61
3 Villa 59
4 Liverpool 56
5 Man Utd 55
6 Brighton 54
7 Newcastle 50
8 Spurs 50

This is incredible.
Just what has this man Emery done!!

[Bad English]

Who's David Reed?

Haha!

He's a Sky Sports journalist.

[LeeB]

2023 Premier League table, all have played 30 league games apart from Newcastle with 29.

1 Man City 71 points
2 Arsenal 61
3 Villa 59
4 Liverpool 56
5 Man Utd 55
6 Brighton 54
7 Newcastle 50
8 Spurs 50

This is incredible.
Just what has this man Emery done!!

It's absolutely mental, sorcery even.

[Percy McCarthy]

Catching up on a couple of Athletic articles about us makes it even more remarkable that we sit 5th currently, given the injuries to such key players. We had a very small squad last season so almost every player is key, but Ramsey and Buendia were both in our top 3 tacklers last season, Mings is our defensive leader and we mostly set up to attack down our left with JJ and Moreno which means we will have had to change how we progress significantly.
This, combined with having to bed in new players much more quickly than was ever planned shows what an absolute genius the man is

I don't really mind Gregggggg Evans, although that shtick Dan Bardell (yes, whooo? etc etc) does with him calling him 'Global Greggg Evans' and talking about golf has more than a touch of cringey accidental Partridge about it.

He is a decent writer, and who cares if he's not a Villa fan, sometimes I think that ability to take a step back and view things more objectively can help.

However, his replacement on the Athletic's Villa beat, Jacob Tanswell, writes much more interesting stuff. Impressed so far.

Agreed. We could do with a bit of copy and pasting before I’m tempted to pay. Never a problem before.

[eamonn]

2023 Premier League table, all have played 30 league games apart from Newcastle with 29.

1 Man City 71 points
2 Arsenal 61
3 Villa 59
4 Liverpool 56
5 Man Utd 55
6 Brighton 54
7 Newcastle 50
8 Spurs 50

This is incredible.
Just what has this man Emery done!!

It's absolutely mental, sorcery even.

Yeah but how come the Redshite are only 4 points behind us? They're crap!

[LeeB]

2023 Premier League table, all have played 30 league games apart from Newcastle with 29.

1 Man City 71 points
2 Arsenal 61
3 Villa 59
4 Liverpool 56
5 Man Utd 55
6 Brighton 54
7 Newcastle 50
8 Spurs 50

This is incredible.
Just what has this man Emery done!!

It's absolutely mental, sorcery even.

Yeah but how come the Redshite are only 4 points behind us? They're crap!

Just shows what can be achieved with utterly bent refs.

[SaddVillan]

Not sure if it belongs here, but this is from The Athletic - it's a really interesting article on one of Unai's main men and gives a pretty good insight to how they all work together.

DAMIAN VIDAGANY: " I DIDN'T KNOW MY ASTON VILLA ROLE OR SALARY, I JUST SAID TO UNAI: 'LET’S GO' ".

"I’ve seen people that are different types of leaders,” says Damian Vidagany. “The leadership of Unai (Emery) is in the football side. Unai is 24 hours football. He doesn’t spend any other minute thinking about something other than football. But a club is not only football; it’s a big universe, where there are many people who you need motivated. If you don’t motivate people, don’t expect them to deliver their best.”

It is approaching a year since Vidagany arrived at Aston Villa as Unai Emery’s personal assistant. A close friend of Emery’s for over 15 years, he knows what the head coach needs and what culture he wants to create.

This summer, however, a new power triangle was formed following the appointment of Monchi as president of football operations, with Vidagany becoming Villa’s director of football. “I don’t go offering technical opinions or decisions, ” says Vidagany. “What I do is provide Unai and Monchi with solutions and a quick response to the demands they have in developing the club. We work like we’ve been together for 10 years.

“My role allows Monchi to be focused on the sporting and scouting side of football, creating and developing a strong network of scouts. We work as Batman and Robin because the structure of Villa needs to grow very fast. We are putting the club at a level towards European football and bringing international players who are expecting a high standard.

“The Premier League has 20 of the best 50 best managers in the world. Unai is close to the top level that marks Pep Guardiola. It’s a matter of time to get there for him. I’ve never seen anyone in my life work as hard as him. This is leadership. He also has a good heart.”

Villa staff do not underestimate Vidagany’s importance to Emery. There is a feeling that if Emery had Vidagany offering the same holistic perspective at Arsenal, Emery would still be the manager in north London. Similarly at Paris Saint-Germain, Vidagany might have helped manage internal politics.

“The coach is the most important piece,” says Vidagany. “When this piece falls, the project can fall. Everyone here understands that a strong manager means a strong club. So my task is to try to connect everyone, from the owner to the academy, to the kit manager.”

Vidagany is well-liked among staff and, as a former journalist, has a reputation among European media, who view him as personable and a good diplomat. Players find him approachable if they have questions or concerns, using him as a conduit between themselves and Emery.

“I’m always very conscious of my limitations and my values,” Vidagany says. “I try to get people to embrace and drive each other, creating a big family where I can communicate with them. From the moment Unai landed at Villa, it was important for everyone to stick to the project, not only the Spanish people that came but also the English people and then the owners, all having one goal in mind.

“The club is like a family and someone has to take care of keeping the family together. Football is very stressful, results sometimes are good and sometimes bad, so we need to be strong enough not to move when the results don’t come in the way we want. Results cannot change the boat’s direction. We need to keep everyone together because the temptation sometimes is to look for who’s guilty and to point fingers. We need to be strong in the good and bad times.”

Vidagany was born and raised in the north Valencian town of Lliria and lived on the first floor of an apartment block. He was a proficient basketballer during his youth, describing himself as an “honourable” player, but accepted as an 18-year-old that he did not have the physical and technical attributes to reach the next level. He played semi-professionally for 12 years and he still “shoots sometimes” at Villa’s training ground. Although not to the same level, Vidagany played football as a central defender but was prone to moonlighting as an emergency striker.

He pivoted towards a career in journalism, studying at a local university, where he became classmates with Victor Onate, later a colleague at DV7, a media agency founded by former Spain international David Villa.

“We first worked in journalism in 1998,” Onate says. “Damian made his career at the local radio station, Radio Nou (Radio Nine), which is the BBC of the Valencian community. He became a star here in our city. He was one of the journalists who managed to get all the news from Valencia.”

Vidagany spent a decade covering his boyhood team. At 24, he reported on Rafa Benitez’s Valencia winning the club’s first and only UEFA Cup (now Europa League). During his time as a journalist, Vidagany developed relationships with several eminent La Liga figures, including Monchi, league president Javier Tebas and club presidents.

“He’s a natural-born public relations guy,” says Onate. “He treats everybody the same way. From the biggest personalities at FIFA or UEFA to the youngest scholarship holder in the department.”

Onate ended up working in the Valencia media department, becoming chief marketing officer. Vidagany joined the club, too, in 2008, one year after Onate left, as chief media officer.

“I accomplished my dreams as a journalist by then,” Vidagany says. “My dream now is to give back, in this case, Unai, and also because we have become very close to owners Nasser Sawiris and Wes Edens.”

Valencia were in dire financial straits when Vidagany joined, but he led a commercial push, increasing revenue. “He’s truly a leader,” says Julio Tarrega Diez, who lived in the same apartment block as a child before working with him in the marketing department at Valencia and then DV7. “People follow him under any circumstances. He’s a boss who knows how to improve the best qualities of his team, giving each person confidence and freedom. He overcame difficult moments at Valencia and knows perfectly how to manage different situations in a top-flight football club.”

Emery was appointed by Valencia 10 days after Vidagany, who recalls their first meeting: “It was a very difficult summer for Unai because the chairman and sporting director left straight after. From the first moment, we had a very good connection because we’re similar ages and started at Valencia at the same time.

“The club was not balanced then, but we were able to qualify for the Champions League. We made a friendship. We are always honest with each other because it is not easy to follow his pace. Unai is very intense, a very hard worker. It’s not a legend or creating a brand for him.

“He’s a guy who thinks and rethinks constantly about what’s best for the team. Every day working with him is a motivation because he’s a source of energy to everyone — he’s like a nuclear plant.”

“Unai detected from the first minute that Damian was more than just a media officer,” says Onate. “He was a guy who was a top club executive, who had the relationship with the president and all the management staff and with the players.”

Emery left Valencia four years later but Vidagany stayed. Those who worked with him noted his ability to keep multiple sides — supporters, journalists and owners — happy and his job increasingly centred on meditating tensions between those fans, media and Peter Lim’s ownership.

In 2017, following 12 managers in nine years, Vidagany stepped down. He declined offers from three other La Liga clubs and intended to concentrate on raising his two young children.

“I started to be the agent of David Villa,” says Onate. “I founded the business (DV7) with David in New York in 2014. Three years later, I moved back to Spain and my good friend Damian had left Valencia. I told David, ‘Look, this man is a great professional, a great human being, and once we open our Spanish office, we need a guy who can manage our company’. Damian was the perfect choice.”

Vidagany became chief executive of DV7, an all-encompassing role. He was responsible for managing players’ careers and, through his marketing background, kept a presence in commercial and media strands. Emery became a client, with Vidagany directly looking after his sponsorship, media relations and social media.

In October 2022, after five years at DV7, Vidagany received a call from Emery. Aston Villa had made overtures and the project, from Emery’s perspective, was enticing. He asked Vidagany to accompany him to Birmingham. Vidagany accepted and immediately moved to ensure Emery settled. It was not until August this year, eight months later, that his wife and children could join him in the Midlands.

“Unai is someone who deserves to succeed,” Vidagany says. “Unai was not a famous player, he never had easy things to get success. He’s having a brilliant career but he’s had big setbacks — you remember the 6-1 for Paris Saint-Germain against Barcelona — but he was always resilient. To work with him was a big chance. I had nothing to think about, I just took the plane. I didn’t know my role, salary or anything. I just said, ‘Let’s go’.”

“It was difficult for everybody,” says Onate. “Damian was the boss here, doing great in the job and living here with his family. He was in the city he was born in and the company was going very well. But Unai is a very close friend and when he was managing at Villarreal, the level of co-operation between him and Damian was like the friendship they had at Valencia.

“Unai talked seriously about Aston Villa’s project and wanted to have all the pieces of the puzzle to make it successful this time. It was painful for us because we were missing our greatest worker, but at the same time, we knew the opportunity was amazing.”

Vidagany’s office is adjacent to Monchi’s at Bodymoor. They have breakfast together and work closely on finalising contracts, talking to agents, prospective new signings and informing those the club are prepared to let go. Monchi has a limited grasp of English, so Vidagany, as he does next to Emery in press conferences, bridges the language barrier.

“My job is to give Unai and Monchi time to focus on the strategy,” he says. “I don’t dare to say whether this is a good or a bad player. But if Unai and Monchi want a player, I do everything I can to get them.”

Each aspect of his role is underpinned by the need to provide Emery, Monchi and other staff members with a stable foundation. He repeatedly stresses the importance of how a robust upward structure tends to elicit success on the pitch — to go, as he says, from a “medium club to a great club again”.

“We are lucky to work at Villa. You also don’t know how lucky Aston Villa is to have these owners,” he says. “Coming from a traditional club in Spain to Aston Villa, which is self-proud and has a very big history, the owners understand the club. This is not easy because the interest of investors sometimes is bigger than the understanding of the club.

“What we found here are owners who are committed financially and embrace Villa’s heritage. We knew from the first moment we were not going to be Manchester City or Manchester United, but we knew that if we are professional and explain the plan, the owners will be committed to the plan.”

Vidagany shares the excitement of supporters, a similar sense of anticipation he first felt while working with Emery when Villa, Juan Mata and David Silva all emerged. The ambition, 15 years later, remains the same — breaking the glass ceiling into the elite.

“I’m feeling in the atmosphere of this club that it can be a contender, even without the resources the top teams have. Unai, when he has the time and resources, will show he’s top-level — if he hasn’t already.

“With Villa’s huge fanbase and as long as we don’t become crazy or idiots to break this good atmosphere, we are on the right track to have big success.”

[Risso]

Interesting article, thanks. Emery needs to stay here for the next ten years and beyond.

[chrisw1]

Interesting article, thanks. Emery needs to stay here for the next ten years and beyond.

Yep, we need to make sure he's our Wegner.

[LeeB]

Sometimes I could weep with joy at where we are right now with these people in charge, it's fucking light years from the clown show its been for a big chunk of the last 20 years.

[Brend'Watkins]

Sometimes I could weep with joy at where we are right now with these people in charge, it's fucking light years from the clown show its been for a big chunk of the last 20 years.

Isn't it just.

Good article that but I notice he mentioned keeping the fans on side. Could be some fisticuffs with Heck in that area. 

[ChicagoLion]

Good stuff.

[Bad English]

Interesting article, thanks. Emery needs to stay here for the next ten years and beyond.

Yep, we need to make sure he's our Wegner.

And what is also necessary is that they put in place a perennial structure that allows the club to function at the level to which we are becoming accustomed without too much upheaval, if one or all of the team were to go or get the push.

[Brazilian Villain]

Interesting article, thanks. Emery needs to stay here for the next ten years and beyond.

Yep, we need to make sure he's our Wegner.

I hope you meant to say Wenger, not Wagner.