Unai Emery - our manager

[adrenachrome]

I think Emery regards excuses (even when justified) as a distraction from improving performance.

He's right, as well. There was a time when managers like Fergie and Wenger could put pressure on the officials, but those days have gone. Moyes is old school, and still tries it on, but Unai is different gravy. It's the new way.

[ROBBO]

Emery got it wrong but put it right at half time, previous managers had the habit of waiting til the sixty minute mark before substitutions no matter how bad we were going.

[Dave]

Just because his thread had fallen to halfway down page two, maintains his positions at the top of F365's regular Best Manager in the Premier League rankings.

1) Unai Emery, Aston Villa (1)

Just doing a brilliant job. Perhaps the most compelling part is how quickly he’s normalised Villa once again being this good. It’s true you don’t have to go all that far back into ancient Barclays folklore to find some very decent Villa teams, but it’s also true that they were quite sh*t for quite a long time since then and brought Emery in because Steven Gerrard was leading them directly and rapidly into a grim relegation battle. That, somehow, really was only last season.

Now they’re in a European quarter-final, which seems perfectly fine, and with almost three-quarters of the season gone are sitting snugly in the top four without anyone thinking this particularly odd or even noteworthy anymore.

It’s just a very good manager doing a very good job with what he has turned into a very good team. We should cherish it, really, because this sort of thing doesn’t happen all that often.

The concern on the horizon will inevitably be that Emery’s work at Villa means he’s lurking near the top of a lot of Next [Club X] Manager markets. But Emery has experienced Big Six Premier League life already; he’d have to be a crazy person to swap what he has going on at Villa right now for the big chair at the madhouses of Chelsea, United or even Newcastle should such opportunity arise in the summer.

And his previous experience of replacing a legacy manager at Arsenal might well put him off Liverpool even if he were the Spaniard they’re after, which he isn’t.

[Brazilian Villain]

Bloody media with anti-Villa bias.

[Astnor]

Just because his thread had fallen to halfway down page two, maintains his positions at the top of F365's regular Best Manager in the Premier League rankings.

1) Unai Emery, Aston Villa (1)

Just doing a brilliant job. Perhaps the most compelling part is how quickly he’s normalised Villa once again being this good. It’s true you don’t have to go all that far back into ancient Barclays folklore to find some very decent Villa teams, but it’s also true that they were quite sh*t for quite a long time since then and brought Emery in because Steven Gerrard was leading them directly and rapidly into a grim relegation battle. That, somehow, really was only last season.

Now they’re in a European quarter-final, which seems perfectly fine, and with almost three-quarters of the season gone are sitting snugly in the top four without anyone thinking this particularly odd or even noteworthy anymore.

It’s just a very good manager doing a very good job with what he has turned into a very good team. We should cherish it, really, because this sort of thing doesn’t happen all that often.

The concern on the horizon will inevitably be that Emery’s work at Villa means he’s lurking near the top of a lot of Next [Club X] Manager markets. But Emery has experienced Big Six Premier League life already; he’d have to be a crazy person to swap what he has going on at Villa right now for the big chair at the madhouses of Chelsea, United or even Newcastle should such opportunity arise in the summer.

And his previous experience of replacing a legacy manager at Arsenal might well put him off Liverpool even if he were the Spaniard they’re after, which he isn’t.

This.

[Monty]

Bloody media with anti-Villa bias.

Ha!

[LeeB]

I don't know where Dave finds this stuff on Football365 half the time as it's wall-to-wall with the usual suspect stuff when we've been the only game playing. When we beat Citeh before Christmas the lead piece was something about Rashford farting in the bath and the dressing room being split over it, or something.

[Dave]

I don't know where Dave finds this stuff on Football365 half the time as it's wall-to-wall with the usual suspect stuff when we've been the only game playing. When we beat Citeh before Christmas the lead piece was something about Rashford farting in the bath and the dressing room being split over it, or something.

Oh, it's god-awful now. Ten years ago it used to be the best football site on the internet (present company excepted), but these days it's exactly as you describe.

Certain parts and writers are still very well-written and very funny, you just have to ignore a load of Reach-style shit to get to it.

[LeeB]

Would've been 20 years or so ago it was the main site I used for football. Think Danny Kelly was involved in setting it up.

[Sexual Ealing]

Would've been 20 years or so ago it was the main site I used for football. Think Danny Kelly was involved in setting it up.

He was. He made a fortune when it was sold.

[cdward]

They always have to shoehorn in references to the usual suspects.  In this one short piece about our manager they manage to include ManU, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle. Obviously just to generate more clicks.
Even the person writing the article doesn't believe Unai will go anywhere but they have to reference them anyway.
Move on nothing to see here.
Though i do like the way he describes us as not looking out of place in the top 4.

[Rigadon]

I know it’s easier to type ‘big 6’ than type the clubs names, but they ready do need to pack that shit in.  It doesn’t reflect reality anymore. 

[Mister E]

I know it’s easier to type ‘big 6’ than type the clubs names, but they ready do need to pack that shit in.  It doesn’t reflect reality anymore. 

You say that: look at the Grauniad article today about the top ten 'most influential players for the run-in': talk about blowing smoke up the arse of the Arse and others!
https://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/2024/mar/28/premier-league-form-business-end-season-arsenal-manchester-city

[LeeB]

I know it’s easier to type ‘big 6’ than type the clubs names, but they ready do need to pack that shit in.  It doesn’t reflect reality anymore. 

You say that: look at the Grauniad article today about the top ten 'most influential players for the run-in': talk about blowing smoke up the arse of the Arse and others!
https://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/2024/mar/28/premier-league-form-business-end-season-arsenal-manchester-city

In fairness, that's the guy that does the stats based stuff and those are the players with the highest scores.

[Lsvilla]

If you didn't think it was possible to love this bloke even more see his instagram post of a pic of him with Gordon Cowans. The official club twitter retweeted it for those (like me) not on instagram. It's absolutely beautiful. Respectful. Proud. Inspiring. Reaffirming.
Any lazy journalist who thinks he'd up sticks to join the shitshows at ManU or Chelsea should have it printed off and be force fed it.