Unai Emery

[LeeB]

I love that not only is he the messianic hero that will make our dreams come true, he's also the nicest most polite man to go with it.

[Brazilian Villain]

I love that not only is he the messianic hero that will make our dreams come true, he's also the nicest most polite man to go with it.

I thought the same, he made it sound like it was Walsall getting to play at the Bernabeu, instead of a trip to Trnava.

[Malandro]

he's also the nicest most polite man to go with it.

He’s the Richard E of managers.

[LeeB]

he's also the nicest most polite man to go with it.

He’s the Richard E of managers.

Ha, yeah that's fair.

[jwarry]

I’m seeing a lot of posts on here fretting that we are not replacing like with like and we’ve moved on players who made a significant contribution to our goals tally last year.  We seem to forget Unai inherited most of the squad and played the best systems he could with the players he had …… and somehow created a silk purse out of a sows ear.

I doubt very much we will play the same way again next year and as I said before the transfer window opened I was expecting a lot of activity and a wholesale change of staff (which many on here disagreed with by the way!) and that incoming will increase Unai’s ability to challenge other teams technically and tactically.

Nest season is a big season for us so I hope I’m right!

[Risso]

Exactly right jwarry. It's absolutely not a case of  like-for-like replacements. Unai is building HIS team now after a year and a half of performing miracles with mostly players from previous managers.

[Ads]

Maybe lightening pace isn't going to be as necessary domestically? It's not like JJ, Morgan, Watkins, Bailey are slow and Jnr is stupidly quick. But there's probably only 3 or 4 sides who aren't going to sit back against us, so getting in behind is more an exercise in precision of pass, movement and wearing them down, than knocking one over the top.

[Toronto Villa]

He got us to the CL with mostly players bought by a number of former managers who were staring relegation in the face. He’s going to keep us a top 4 and CL side by buying better players and playing various systems and formations that he actually prefers. It won’t all happen in this window.

[pablo_picasso]

Maybe lightening pace isn't going to be as necessary domestically? It's not like JJ, Morgan, Watkins, Bailey are slow and Jnr is stupidly quick. But there's probably only 3 or 4 sides who aren't going to sit back against us, so getting in behind is more an exercise in precision of pass, movement and wearing them down, than knocking one over the top.

Plus Philogene & that kid from Everton whose name I have forgotten already...

[eamonn]

Dobbin, the Shetland pony who moves like a tiger on vaseline.

[Dogtanian]

Dobbin, the Shetland pony who moves like a tiger on vaseline.

I'd forgotten about that and that one is going on in the car.

[Footy-Vill]

Barkley is 6 shirt though so he's seemingly replaced Luiz rather than make weights Sammy Junior and El Baron ? Not an upgrade.
Onana replaces Iroegbunam is an upgrade.

[coreyfeldman]

Seems that as there's no Luiz thread, footy is shoe-horning his Luiz based arguments into every single thread on the board. That'll learn you

[Footy-Vill]

In 23/24 season Villa had 7th oldest team. Unai Emery squad last season was an average age of 26.1
In the Prem 20 of the 28 players used by El Maestro were over 25
(71% players used in Villa squad)
Emery played 8 players under 25

[enigma]

Interesting article on the work being done on refreshing the squad.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/31/unai-emery-aston-villa-squad-younger-team-squad