Unai Emery

[PaulWinch again]

He'll leave us one day.

But it won't be this summer.

I think you’re incorrect. He can do everything he wants with us once the financial constraints are sorted. This is his big project and he’s only started.

Well he’s not wrong really. I can categorically confirm he will leave us one day.

[andyh]

https://youtube.com/shorts/1l66ldT8pjU?si=S0fhf-MAWiGqn4KV

This, from last night, makes me emotional

[Brend'Watkins]

https://youtube.com/shorts/1l66ldT8pjU?si=S0fhf-MAWiGqn4KV

This, from last night, makes me emotional

Brilliant, just brilliant.

[aj2k77]

That is a rallying cry. We are ready.

[PeterWithesShin]

The best type of Unai Emery celebration 😍

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3447468315422545

[Hookeysmith]

I've thought ever since his 2nd season,make some key signings and keep the likes of Kamara fitter for longer and we will have a genuine challenge for the title and eventually the Champions League.

What he has done with us so far (and there has been some games where doubts were mentioned) is nothing short of miraculous

He is a genius

[trinityoap]

Just imagine what he could do at a big club (as 90% of football writers will be saying over the summer).

[Stu]

"Unai Emery isn’t - checks notes - on the six-man shortlist for Premier League Manager of the Season - checks notes again."
https://x.com/henrywinter/status/2055393584933675358

Carrick being on it is mental. He’s been there half a season and they’ve only had to play a game a week.

[Somniloquism]

And hopefully Fernandes has a Salah-like final experience as they rely on him so much.

[wolfman999]

"Unai Emery isn’t - checks notes - on the six-man shortlist for Premier League Manager of the Season - checks notes again."
https://x.com/henrywinter/status/2055393584933675358

Carrick being on it is mental. He’s been there half a season and they’ve only had to play a game a week.

Fucking ridiculous.

[Tuscans]

Emery: “Success consists of doing something important & being able to repeat it over time. In my case, everything comes from my passion for football, which is my way of living. I want to compete & I want to win. For that I dedicate my time to work, analyse rivals, study my team & constantly update myself. That’s the real method.”

Emery: “Preparing for a final? I try to be very busy. I prepare every detail, I talk a lot with the players — both individually & collectively. I also look for moments to disconnect, for example, I play fast chess games. It helps me clear my mind & chess also teaches a lot about concentration and mistakes.”

Emery: “We are very lucky with our owners. Nassef, Wes & Michael support us a lot. They have supported all the improvements of the project, from infrastructure to sports growth. Even if they are not in the day to day, they always appear at important moments & transmit a lot of confidence.”

Emery: “Receiving calls & offers? Yes, of course. After so many years you live with it. But when I’m focused on competing, there’s nothing to distract me. I am completely focused on the team’s goal.”

[eamonn]

So he has been playing 4D chess all this time!

[PeterWithesShin]

[Tuscans]

What does football think of Unai Emery?
Jacob Tanswell


Where does Unai Emery rank among football’s best managers? Does his record in European competition precede him? Or is his reputation, within footballing circles, still dented by perceived failures when in charge at Paris Saint-Germain and then Arsenal?

The answers to these questions are curious and nuanced. While, in some quarters, uncertainty still nags over whether he could implement his methods at clubs of a certain stature, a widespread reverence of Emery is clear. The 54-year-old Spaniard is among the most decorated coaches of the modern generation. Those close to him, admittedly from a biased viewpoint, believe only Pep Guardiola, now at Manchester City after stints with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, ranks higher.

“Unai always says (Guardiola) is the best coach in the world,” Aston Villa’s director of football, Damian Vidagany, previously told The Athletic. “For me, it’s Unai, because he never had the resources Guardiola had. Unai, when he has the time and the resources, will show that he is top level — if he’s not yet. I mean, compared with the high standard that is Guardiola, for instance.”

Another coach, who managed against Emery in the Premier League last season and has been granted anonymity — like others quoted in this piece — to protect relationships, puts it succinctly: “I just think he is fantastic.”

Yet the theory persists that Emery is at his best when he has full autonomy to shape a club in his image, and alongside his own staff, as he did at Sevilla, Villarreal and now Villa. Manchester United have been admirers over the past year and he was on their shortlist to be Ruben Amorim’s permanent replacement, but executives have recommended interim head coach Michael Carrick to take over. So, are his idiosyncrasies conducive to managing one of the traditional European powerhouses?

On Wednesday, Villa face Freiburg in Istanbul. It will be Emery’s sixth Europa League final in 12 years with four different clubs and an opportunity to lift the trophy for a fifth time with a third. The Athletic has spoken to sporting directors in the Premier League and across Europe, along with players, coaches and managers — all on condition of anonymity — to learn how Emery is viewed by peers and those who might one day consider hiring him.

It does not take long for one high-ranking recruitment executive at a Premier League rival to sing Emery’s praises.

“A top manager who is exceptional at extracting the most from his players and drilling them into the system he wants to play,” he says. “No player goes on to the pitch in an Emery side without knowing exactly what their job is.

“The best skill he has shown at Villa has been his ability to better utilise a talented core of players he inherited and turn them into top, consistent performers. His skills were probably underappreciated, particularly in England, before he went to Villa. Perhaps he is not showy or sexy enough to be given time at a club like Arsenal.”

The same person is less glowing about Villa’s recent recruitment history. That department is spearheaded by Emery, who has the final say on all first-team signings. This can lead the Birmingham club to bring in players upon whom the department’s staff have not always unanimously agreed, as Emery will sometimes push for those he knows.

This power structure has led, in the recruitment figure’s eyes, to a “spotty” track record, with Morgan Rogers, who joined in January 2024 from Middlesbrough in a deal worth an initial £8million ($10.7m) rising to £15m with add-ons, as the obvious “exceptional buy”.


Emery is an “old-style” manager, as the executive puts it. He wants distinct methods to be in place. Villa, as a wider institution, have “afforded him the responsibility in which he can excel”.

This has brought additional pressure on Emery to bring success, but he has repaid that faith. The question, some we spoke to state, is whether Emery will want to continue the Villa project or if he feels he has achieved all he can there, particularly if the club continue to remain tightly up against financial restrictions which would slow down their pursuit of tangible success and contribute to his core players ageing or leaving.

At another Premier League club, one considered among its ‘Big Six’, a leading recruitment figure describes Emery as a “game-changing coach for the level of club that he’s at… it’s as simple as that”.

“Unai is an outstanding coach who is world-class and thrives at making sub-elite teams competitive against the elite,” the same person adds. “This is, however, understandably difficult to sustain, due to the imbalance in the level of player that he typically works with versus the players that elite clubs can recruit. This has been borne out across his career in him achieving more cup successes than ‘pure’ league successes.

“That (cup competitions) is where his best work has been done. The most striking examples are at the three clubs he has held his longest tenures: Valencia, Sevilla and Aston Villa.

“His obsessive nature for the game — focusing on specific tactical details, investment in player development and the evolution of his tactical approach — is what makes him unique as a package. Not every player will appreciate this, however.

His experiences and prominent successes at sub-elite teams have no doubt influenced how he views the game and approaches the game as a coach, given it is what he does best. This then begs the question as to how successful he could be at a top club in modern football, considering how demanding he genuinely is and the expectations he would have around control and supportive infrastructure.”


On the theme of sporting directors, another, heading up a large European club, offers his thoughts on Emery, and specifically his tactical imprint.

Emery has used 11 players this season who, in the words of the high-ranking sporting director, are “polyvalent”. “Emery has built a very good team,” he explains. “It is difficult to play against them because they can control the game, or they can play very fast and direct. They have a lot of polyvalence, which means players can play in several different positions.

“Of all the clubs winning titles in recent times, they have been possession-based. But in recent years, it has changed. The teams being successful are in the middle of the graph — Villa are able to play both.

“They are always balanced; they have control, pace and intensity. An example of balance is in defence. They have one ball-playing defender, Pau Torres, and one athletic defender, Ezri Konsa.”


A former Premier League manager, who has watched much of the Emery-inspired transformation of Villa from afar, has been inspired to take on some of the Spaniard’s methods — such as the positional structure of his central midfielders and No 10s.

“Without any doubt, (Emery is) one of the top five managers in the world,” this person says. “He has been underrated many times. I don’t know exactly why. For me, his work ethic is what makes the difference for him. But, over everything, his ability to adapt to different contests during the last 20 years, starting in Almeria in the second division in Spain, then growing into the first tier with Valencia… he always makes his teams competitive.

“His teams are always well organised. They always know where to attack, where to defend and how to do it. The players know exactly what the plan is, and that’s because he spends an enormous amount of hours preparing himself to deliver the information to the team. He has been able to include a lot of people in his technical staff.

“What it means is that he has a clear idea, but also has a clear way to guide the people around him; to give them the freedom to develop this idea, from the goalkeeper coaches, to fitness coaches, to assistant coaches, to individual coaches. That includes people like Damian (Vidagany). He has also worked very closely with the best technical directors in the world: first Monchi, now Roberto Olabe.

“Overall, the thing most people say about him is that he’s able to make everyone individually better.”

The Spaniard's departure was a shock but not a surprise after a whirlwind few months and a dire start to the season

A source who worked with Emery at Paris Saint-Germain is more sceptical as to whether his methods are cut out to work with the game’s superstars.

“He had issues with the big players,” he says. “The famous players, who, after a while, did not connect with him as much. People like Thiago Motta, Thiago Silva — the big guys didn’t really respect him. The issue for coaches like him is that when you come to a club that has big players who’ve won the Champions League, players who played in big clubs and with big coaches, they can really turn on you fast.

“That’s the doubt I have. To tell you the truth, no one really remembers what he won for PSG (one Ligue 1 title, two Coupes de France and a pair of Coupes de la Ligue — France’s since-scrapped League Cup equivalent) because everybody was focused on what he lost, which was the big loss for us.”


“His approach was very different to other coaches I have worked with,” says a former player who featured under Emery at Arsenal. “A different personality as well. I’d say when Unai came in, he was very energetic — kind of similar to Mikel (Arteta, the club’s current manager and a fellow Basque). Very enthusiastic in the way that he wanted to make us play and train.

“I would have liked to play more under him, but I was important in some big games. I think he is a great manager, one of Europe’s best. Honestly, I think that Arsenal should have given him a little bit more time.”

A head of recruitment at another club who will also play in the Champions League with Villa next season profusely praises Emery, marvelling at how he has transformed them in the past four years. He wonders whether the next step in his career could feasibly be another crack with a European supergiant.

“To be given the amount of control he has at Aston Villa is huge,” he says. “To turn it around from where (predecessor Steven) Gerrard had it, it is clear he’s a top coach. A lot of coaches can be given a lot of influence and power and not do a lot with it, but it’s clear he has the knowledge and the people around him to deliver results consistently.

“He’s shown that at basically whatever club he’s been at. Arsenal wasn’t a match, but he won things at PSG, with Sevilla and Villarreal in the Europa League — it’s essentially the Emery Cup in terms of how tactically good he is in the competition. He can just win games through his tactical nous. He’s got to be one of the best European managers there has been.


“He’s got an incredible drive. He does his own analysis on Hudl sports code (an analysis software), so he’s completely hands-on with everything he does. English is not his first language, which made it difficult at Arsenal. He then had the setback of what happened. It’s incredible to see how well he’s done at Villa, with the resources and restraints they have.

“He loves the challenge of turning players other people don’t think have the ability anymore and getting more out of them than other coaches do. It sounds very simple, but the hardest thing for head coaches or managers to do is to make sure the players are in the right positions that actually maximise their strengths.

“See what he’s done with Rogers when they took him from Middlesbrough. I don’t think Boro were that upset about losing him.

“He’s an elite manager who probably needs all the control. Arsenal didn’t work out for him because he didn’t have the same control. But if you give him that and the belief he can run things from a football operational side, then he is, clearly, one of the best managers.

“You can make an argument that the top managers do need more control, so he could probably manage anywhere in the world and at any of the top clubs.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up at Real Madrid one day, for sure.”

[PeterWithesShin]