Unai Emery

[HKP90]

21 hours ago, Villa_Vids said:

I agree with all of that except calling the league cup the coca cola cup. 

Yeah. I still call it that when I'm tired if i'm honest. The carabao cup. Yeeeaahhh, no.

 

[allani]

14 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Yes, I assume he will have done his homework on us before accepting Nas & Wes lucrative offer to be our new head coach.

But I thought that Nas signed him all on his own after sacking Gerrard on the spot after the Fulham match.  How on earth did Emery have time to do all the homework that we know he would have wanted to do in less than 96 hours???

[AvfcRigo82]

16 minutes ago, allani said:

But I thought that Nas signed him all on his own after sacking Gerrard on the spot after the Fulham match.  How on earth did Emery have time to do all the homework that we know he would have wanted to do in less than 96 hours???

Magic   

[Guest av1]

18 hours ago, MrBlack said:

My reading of that was that he knew it was a game the players might take lightly. And he prepared then in such a way there was no way they were going to do that under his watch. 

Which is absolutely fantastic. I’m crap with remembering sequences of games, but I remember under MON feeling like this was an issue. Hammer a few “top teams” then cock up against someone we were favourites to beat. I’ve got (not just under MON) QPR and Stoke in my head for some reason. 
 

Without going OT this is what done for the plop victims this season. It’s ok smashing UTD to pieces (a game that looks after itself from a motivational point of view) but it means little if you follow that up struggling against a team down the bottom. 
 

Emery is just a different level from anything with every seen. I’ve said before in this thread, and I still maintain that there isn’t a manager in world football I’d swap him for. Not one. 

[blandy]

25 minutes ago, allani said:

But I thought that Nas signed him all on his own after sacking Gerrard on the spot after the Fulham match.  How on earth did Emery have time to do all the homework that we know he would have wanted to do in less than 96 hours???

Right now Villa will have a shortlist of next managers, in case Unai leaves or gets hit by a bus or…

Obviously Unai himself would have been on the list previously. His appointment here was thankfully pretty quick and fell into place nicely, in about a week or so, so a mix of being prepared for different eventualities and the persuasive nature of Nas and his visit to see Unai and of the club’s ambitions.

[HalfTimePost]

 

[Guest av1]

On 07/06/2023 at 20:22, Hank Scorpio said:

Jason Burt,  CHIEF FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT, 7 June 2023 • 6:04pm

John McGinn returned to Aston Villa’s training ground at Bodymoor Heath last week for one last time this season. He was there to collect his boots ahead of reporting for international duty with Scotland and popped in to say hello to head coach Unai Emery.

“He was watching back the Brighton game,” McGinn says. “That just shows you he is obsessed about football and improving us. He is dedicated to making us better.”

That 2-1 home victory over Brighton sealed Villa’s seventh-place finish in the Premier League and a return to European football for the first time in 13 years, qualifying for the Europa Conference League.

“Get your passports, see you in Europe,” a beaming McGinn declared on the Villa Park pitch afterwards amid exuberant scenes and it capped an extraordinary campaign for the club and for him personally. “It’s been a rollercoaster,” he says. “And now this is the highest I have ever been in football.”

The 28-year-old is in the form of his life – so much so that Villa want to extend his contract even though it has two years still to run. “My agent is good at dealing with this stuff,” he says. “It’s been quite a turnaround. If that had been mentioned in October or November it would have been laughed at.”

 

John McGinn

McGinn credits Emery with changing how he thinks about the game CREDIT: Andrew Fox for The Telegraph

What McGinn says next would certainly have been laughed at. But not now. “The challenge is can we keep that consistency next season and why not challenge for top four?” he poses. “We are in that way – the structure, the belief. Everything has come together.”

 

It felt very different not so long ago. Last summer McGinn was made Villa captain by manager Steven Gerrard but the season started badly with just two wins in 12. A relegation battle loomed and it was worse for McGinn as he struggled for form. The harder he tried the worse it got.

 

“I was feeling guilty. He [Gerrard] had put so much faith in me and it was brilliant to learn from him as a midfield player,” McGinn says. A low point came in the 1-1 away draw with Nottingham Forest in October. He was substituted and there was, McGinn recalls, some “sarcastic cheering” from Villa supporters.

 

“The fans have been phenomenal with me but that cut deep. My dad didn’t go back to the away games for four or five weeks. I kept my head down and didn’t get too upset but it did hurt and my ego did take a bit of a dent,” he admits. “It’s then about proving those people wrong and thankfully I’ve managed to do that.”

 

‘It was slightly embarrassing’

Eleven days later Gerrard was sacked and McGinn was dropped by caretaker Aaron Danks. It looked like he was the fall guy. “That was the most challenging part of my career. It was slightly embarrassing, especially when the manager was sacked and it was the first thing that happened after that,” he says. “I wasn’t naive to think I was playing well. I was probably trying too hard to find the answers. The criticism the manager was getting, the criticism everyone was getting. I was trying my best to put it right.”

 

John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara knock Alexis Mac Allister out of his stride

Victory over Brighton secured Villa's return to European competition for the first time since 2010-11 CREDIT: REUTERS/Ed Sykes

McGinn used the time out positively, he got “back to basics” but – emphatically – it was the arrival of Emery that changed everything. Rarely is a player as enthusiastic as McGinn is about the Spaniard. It is almost messianic.

 

“He has probably transformed me as a player; taken me to a level that I probably didn’t think I was capable of; made me adapt in so many ways I probably didn’t think I was capable of,” McGinn explains. “He is so intense, so passionate about football, so detailed. He just wants to improve every single player.”

 

McGinn gives two examples. The first is how Emery tasks two of his coaches – Antonio Rodríguez and Jaime Arias – to work individually with each player. So when McGinn was asked to play on the right wing he had already worked on “body shape” and where to position himself with Rodríguez.

 

Second he talks about Emery drilling into left-back Alex Moreno how good a team Bournemouth are and the threat they pose. In fact, McGinn says, Bournemouth were the side Villa spent most time analysing because Emery was fascinated “by their level”. Villa won 3-0 having been beaten 2-0 by Bournemouth on the opening day of the season.

 

“Tyrone [Mings] talks about it as well – he’s 30, I am 28 – and we regret not having a different style of coaching earlier,” McGinn explains. “We are used to British ex-pro managers who are all brought up the same way and this style, the Spanish way, is something I really enjoy.”

 

McGinn has had similar chats with his friend and former Villa team-mate Jack Grealish, who works under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.

 

“The best thing for me is that he [Emery] judged with his own eyes,” McGinn says. “There was a lot of noise from outside – ‘he [McGinn] can’t lead, he can’t be the captain’. I am not a huge speaker. I feel I have a lot of respect in the dressing room but I am not going to be a Conor Coady or Jordan Henderson. I try and lead by the way that I play. The perception was pretty easy for me to see: because I wasn’t playing well, therefore I was not leading. Now I am playing well I am all of a sudden an OK captain. I feel that perception is normal but I have grown into the role and am enjoying the responsibility.”

 

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery speaks to John McGinn

McGinn has repaid Emery's faith CREDIT: REUTERS/Ed Sykes

Emery has taught McGinn another thing: that he has more time than he thinks.

 

‘It’s opened my eyes’

“The Spanish have always had a lot more composure – certainly more composure than Scottish people,” McGinn says. “When you are a midfielder you don’t get a lot of time on the ball or you don’t think you do but you actually have more time.

 

“Putting your foot on the ball in midfield in Scotland is frowned upon but the manager came in and said, ‘Why not? You haven’t got an opponent anywhere near you, take your time, bring someone else in and create space for your team-mate’. That is something I have learnt and realised.

 

“It’s opened my eyes. Quite often before the Villa fans would have mumbled and grumbled but they are buying into it. There have been bumps along the way – Stevenage at home [FA Cup], Leicester at home [4-2 defeat] – when we have been punished for playing out from the back, but I think the fans are learning as well, the fans are seeing there’s a bigger picture here and that we are progressing as a team with a certain style.”

 

McGinn is even, for the first time, considering going into coaching when he eventually retires. “My understanding has gone through the roof under him [Emery],” he says. “I never thought I would dip my hand into coaching but he’s made me think a completely different way about the game. When someone is that obsessed with perfection and doing things right you can’t get away from learning. It’s been priceless and I can use that if I decide to go down the coaching route. I always thought you buy the best players and you win but he’s opened my eyes.”

 

For example, when McGinn was in Emery’s office they talked about the Brighton game. “I said to him, ‘It was a bit like a chess game’. Because their structure is so impressive we were both kind of cancelling each other out. It was like moving parts,” he says.

 

Unsurprisingly there is a huge amount of analysis and tactical planning. “The meetings can be long but it’s something new every week,” McGinn explains, and the “marginal gain” is in watching clips, “mentally being on it”, staying focused, “not sprinting around the pitch”.

 

McGinn adds: “Football intelligence goes a long way because now these managers are so intense and detailed. It’s just so interesting. People are finding a way to win because the margins are so fine and the standards are so high.”

 

‘We are no longer under the radar’

He has also shown football intelligence in his adaptability. “The only positions I have not played are centre-back, right-back and goalkeeper. It’s a good thing,” McGinn says, while the exciting challenge for Villa next season is that they will “no longer be under the radar”.

 

Emery was under no illusion when he arrived that his remit was simply to avoid relegation. But that quickly changed. “We had staged ambition: keep the club in the league, then let’s try to get in the top 10 and then let’s see who we can catch,” McGinn says....

... The manager is the same and he has been clear about it: compete in Europe, compete for trophies.

Quoted from the McGinn thread.

I’ve read that twice now. There’s levels to this game and our manager is right at the flipping top. I couldn’t believe it when we got him, but the more read about, hear from him in interviews, and witness in person at games, I’m even more blown away that he’s our manager.

There’s been many false dawns over the years, but if this guy doesn’t get us back amongst the elite absolutely no one will.

The fact he seems like an even human being is just the flipping cherry on top.

Love him.

[duke313]

I could see Unai at a club like Napoli, but in about 5 or 6 years after he’s won us a Europa Conference, x2 Europa Leagues and established us as a CL side

[Mark Albrighton]

11 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

 

Another concern is we are losing the separation between church and state, so to speak.  More and more power is being concentrated under Emery and obviously his position here is tied to results, too bad and he's gone, too good and he's poached.  As you say, it's a calculated risk but the point of a club structure like we had with Purslow is to enable a smooth transition between managers. If the manager holds all the cards then we are basically screwed when it's time for the manager to move on.  I feel like NSWE are savvy enough to realise this and we do have contingencies in place, but Purslow leaving does generate more questions than answers. 

My sense here is the owners are going all in with Emery, but with a degree of security thinking that he won’t be given free rein at another club. Or at least a more attractive club.

My take is Emery wants to be challenging among the elite AND have a huge say in the way the club is run. I don’t think there will be many who could offer both. 

There is still a risk, you are right. He could just leave out of the blue one day, MON style, with Emery essentially taking his guys with him and we’re left all out to sea. Famous last words, but he doesn’t strike me as that sort of guy. 

[The_Rev]

3 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

but he doesn’t strike me as that sort of guy. 

 

I wonder if Villarreal fans would feel the same way?

Edited June 12, 2023 by The_Rev
Villarreal has two r's!

[Mark Albrighton]

14 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

 

I wonder if Villarreal fans would feel the same way?

He’d go to what he would consider a better project. 

I’m saying that what he would consider a better project (chance of competing at the very top/large amount of control) would be few and far between.

I think the idea of him being poached is unlikely because I think he wants both of those criteria and there isn’t many who can offer it.

When I say I think “he’s not that sort of guy”, I mean an MON style, cut my nose off to spite my face, walkout. I don’t think he’s being poached and I don’t think he’d throw his rattle out the pram either.

[Made In Aston]

Emery wants a different structure with his own guys in there. That structure involves splitting up the CEO responsibilities, so he has definitely had a hand in Purslow leaving, even if it is indirectly. 

There is no doubt that Emery has a lot of power and influence at Villa now. It can be a dangerous thing and only time will tell if that's a good decision or not. 

[M_Afro]

We need to be careful that we don’t rely too heavily on Unai. You never know what’s around the corner and we have to ensure that should Unai leave, for whatever reason, succession to the next person is seamless. I do trust NSWE to have that covered though and I’m just going to enjoy watching Unai for as long as possible (hopefully decades).

[gwi1890]

2 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

He might have a point. Emery wants a different structure with his own guys in there. That structure involves splitting up the CEO responsibilities, so he has definitely had a hand in Purslow leaving, even if it is indirectly. 

There is no doubt that Emery has a lot of power and influence at Villa now. It can be a dangerous thing and only time will tell if that's a good decision or not. 

If were bringing Monchi in its anything but total control . This may explain things better.

 

 

[Muriel]

I think that is very unlikely that Emery even had 1% influence on Purslow leaving. In the end he is only the head coach (not even manager - clubs own words). 

I do think that when it comes to sporting decisions like signings, his words will hold a lot of value - although he probably is not making the final decision. However, I do not believe that Emery has the power of getting Lange fired or hiring Monchi for example. He will of course be heard in the Monchi recruitment process, but in the end Monchi will be the boss of Emery, so it does not make sense to say, that Monchi is hired as part of Emery's team.

I also hope that it is this way. No matter how positive everything is right now, we are coming out of a season where half of the clubs in PL sacked their manager. If we by January are sitting in 13th and out of the cups, it is not unthinkable that we would do the same.

Relying heavily on a single manager and the lack of stability that gives you is how not to run a football club. However, from everything I have read, I am also very comfortable, that NSWE sees things the same way.
 

[Tomaszk]

If Emery said I want Purslow out to Nas and Wes, he would be gone. 100%. Emery is far more valuable to us than Purslow ever could be.

Emery won't have said that.

[MaVilla]

 

[AvonVillain]

2 hours ago, Made In Aston said:

 It can be a dangerous thing and only time will tell if that's a good decision or not. 

Bring on the 'dangerous thing', because all we've put up with for over a generation now are managers past their prime, not up to their early career promise or bewilderingly, clearly out of their depth. King Unai is none of these things.

[QldVilla]

I couldn’t believe Keown’s comments regarding Emery. He was obviously trying to reset the culture after Wenger and should have been given time. Just becuase you don’t agree with something, doesn’t mean it is wrong.

Thinking that Emery had something to do with Purslow’s departure is ridiculous, comes across as a personal vendetta by Keown.

[TheAuthority]

Keown didn't enjoy his time at Villa and couldn't wait to leave (he's said it it multiple interviews.) When you have that information it's very obvious to see the way he talks about Villa in any context is colored by that experience. (Despite in that TS clip saying something almost positive albeit through clenched teeth.)

Anyway his record at Arsenal really wasn't that bad so I don't know what Keown's beef is with Unai. They had a 22 game unbeaten run, had a 50% win percentage, he got them to the Europa League final and they finished in 5th place, higher than they had the year before.