Aston Villa announces Unai Emery as their new manager, following Steven Gerrard’s dismissal.
After Steven Gerrard was fired, Unai Emery, a former manager of Arsenal, was named head coach of Aston Villa.
After Steven Gerrard was fired on Friday of last week (AEDT), Aston Villa announced the hiring of Unai Emery as their new head coach.
After leading Villarreal to victory over Manchester United in the Europa League final the previous year and a trip to the Champions League semifinal last season, the former manager of Arsenal is leaving the team.
He won’t be joining the team until November 1st, at which point he will assume leadership of the team before the World Cup break.
“Aston Villa is delighted to announce the appointment of Unai Emery as the club’s new Head Coach,” the club said in a statement.
“Unai comes from Villarreal, where he won the Europa League by defeating Manchester United in both the 2021 final and the previous season’s Champions League semifinals.
“Unai is a very accomplished coach with over 900 games managed under his belt. He has also managed in the Premier League, having led Arsenal to a Europa League final while there.
“Unai will take over from November 1st after his work permit formalities are completed.”
Assistant editor of The Mirror Darren Lewis stated that Emery’s employment on Kelly and Wrighty on Optus Sport would only be successful if Villa gave him the time they didn’t give Gerrard.
“He had the opportunity to build a team, he had coaching staff that was supportive of the difficult moment they went through, and he had support in difficult moments,” he stated.
At Aston Villa, that is nonexistent because everyone wants to succeed right now. In light of Wolves and other teams who are fighting bigger than they are, they want it.
“They aim to follow in the footsteps of West Ham, who performed admirably last season despite having a smaller budget. In the Premier League, everyone is impatient because they want to accomplish what they see everyone else achieving quickly.
‘These guys (like Emery) build teams and often, in the case of Emery, with other people’s rejects. There will be fans of Aston Villa looking at that and say ‘why are you buying him? He wasn’t good enough for that club so why are you bringing him here?’ And that’s part of the problem.”
Despite winning four Europa League titles, Emery’s reputation in England isn’t as high as it should be as a result of his time with Arsenal.
However, former Premier League striker Darren Bent believes that is a result of Arsenal fans’ impatience following the slow decline of the club under his predecessor Arsene Wenger.
“The other thing about Unai Emery is that he followed Arsene Wenger,” he said.
If he had been given more time I think he probably would have succeeded because he’s a good manager. You don’t win the Europa League four times if you’re not a good coach.
“But unfortunately he followed Wenger and fans had already had enough. They didn’t like the football they were watching and ended up hounding him out, but he’s still a top coach.”
Former England international Jermain Defoe believed Aston Villa fans wouldn’t be over the moon with the appointment given what they saw from him at Arsenal.
He said on Matchday Live on Optus Sport: “Do I think Villa fans will be excited about that? I think some will, not everyone. Some will because he CV is good, you have to say that.
He’s a manager coming back with a point to prove because I don’t think he was appreciated that much during his time with Arsenal. We’ll see, but in terms of his experience in Europe, it’s top. But we’ll see.
Ex-Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves added: “The man’s won four Europa Leagues, that’s pretty good. He’s won trophies, he’s an experienced manager, one of the most experienced managers in Europe.
“I believe they made the decision based on experience following Steven Gerrard’s incident. I agree with Jermain; aside from his time at Arsenal, his resume is excellent. He will have a lot to prove because he has been a big success everywhere else. I doubt that Villa supporters will be unduly thrilled by the events at Arsenal.
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