Unai Emery is proud of his record of always having brought success to the clubs he has coached, and it riles him that after his 18-month spell at Arsenal he had only a Europa League final defeat and a few press conference compilations of him saying ‘Good Ebening’ to show for it.
Since leaving Arsenal, he has won the Europa League and reached the Champions League semi-final in his next job at Villarreal. But the Aston Villa job is a second chance to crack the Premier League.
He has never stopped trying to improve his English, still watching Peaky Blinders episodes, in case it became his working language again. He is older, wiser and just as hungry.
Unai Emery returns to the Premier League after leaving Villarreal to take charge of Aston Villa
Emery (right) departed England in 2019 after being sacked by Arsenal after a poor run of form
Asked by Sportsmail in May 2020 if he felt he had been poorly treated at Arsenal he spoke about players displaying a ‘one day yes, one day no’ mentality and not being given time to change that rotten culture.
He discussed having to deal with Mesut Ozil failing to show the commitment his top-earner status should have guaranteed, and of the club ignoring his demands to sign players who knew the Premier League. He spoke to Wilfried Zaha about joining — Arsenal signed Nicolas Pepe instead.
Time has stood up a lot of his arguments as well as justifying his high hopes for Bukayo Saka, to whom he gave a debut. And in that feisty, mid-pandemic, video-conference interview he also made it clear he didn’t like the way influential figures at the club let him take all the flak, having overruled him on the big calls.
The new Villa manager (right) held a farewell press conference in Spain on Tuesday afternoon
Aston Villa ought to be a different challenge. There may be shades of Ozil in the developing Philippe Coutinho situation but Emery fervently defends his track record with especially talented players, believing his failure to get the best out of Ozil was the exception and not the rule.
The long shadow of Arsene Wenger will not have to be contended with and the bar is set lower. Getting the club away from relegation and into Europe — the dream for billionaire owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens since they bought the club in 2019 — over the next season and a half would constitute success and if that target sounds far-fetched, Emery’s track record stands up well.
Since 2008 he has always coached in European competition, albeit this season in the Conference League, a competition in which Villarreal have so far won all six of their games. He won the Europa League three times in a row from 2014 to 2016 with Sevilla.
Europa League winner Emery (right) will replace Steven Gerrard in the Aston Villa dugout
Villa bounced back to winning ways with a 4-0 league thrashing of Brentford on Sunday
Aston Villa, three points above the bottom three ahead of Saturday’s trip to Newcastle, are appointing someone on a three-year deal who takes the job, but not always himself, incredibly seriously.
Emery will have a second chance to impress in the English top-flight
He tried to speak English from the start at Arsenal despite knowing his command of the language was far from perfect.
‘When I said ‘good ebening’, OK it should be ‘good evening’, I needed to practise my accent,’ he says. ‘But when I said ‘good ebening’ after a good result it was just a joke, when we were losing it was a disgrace.’
If he had hidden behind an interpreter it would never have been an issue but Emery likes to front up — yesterday he faced local media at Villarreal and came across as a man unburdened by any sense that he had let the club down.
They hired him to win their first ever trophy and he did that. Then when he was offered the Newcastle job he turned it down and stayed to guide them to the Champions League semi-finals.
He might have accepted Newcastle’s offer but he was unhappy about the way the story broke in England on the day of an important Champions League match for Villarreal.
The Spaniard enjoyed three years in charge of Arsenal before being replaced by Mikel Arteta
Emery was previously linked with the Newcastle United managers role before Eddie Howe took over at the north-east side
He felt the hurried process was disrespectful to the Spanish club and with a private plane ready to fly him to the North East he had a 50-minute heart-to-heart with Villarreal chief executive Fernando Roig Negueroles and was talked into staying.
Villarreal always suspected a similar scenario could arise again. Emery told them last Friday his departure was likely and the decision was confirmed on Monday.
The €6million (£5.2m) release fee is welcomed by a club who expected to sell one of their best players last summer but ended up keeping the likes of centre back Pau Torres and forward Arnaut Danjuma.
Villa expect Emery to bring out the best in their potential England players — Ezri Konsa, Ollie Watkins and Jacob Ramsey — and form an effective relationship with the South American quintet of Emi Martinez, Diego Carlos, Douglas Luiz, Emi Buendia and Coutinho.
Emery will have to wait to take charge of his new side as he is due to assume the role on Nov 1
There is a belief at Villa that 4-2-3-1 is best suited to the players in this squad, and Emery has used the formation regularly throughout his career.
That system was hardly ever deployed by Gerrard or his predecessor Dean Smith, but when caretaker boss Aaron Danks put it into practice against Brentford on Sunday the results were immediate with a 4-0 win.
In his farewell appearance yesterday Emery spoke about how Villarreal deserved praise for the previous two seasons’ success in Europe because the club had given him everything he asked for to make things work.
He will feel that if Aston Villa properly support him too, he will deliver.
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