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Unai Emery is a damaging guy, or rather, it must be said that the Basque coach’s adventure since his arrival at Aston Villa, on November 4, 2022, poses difficult questions for his teammates.
The last Premier League manager still to have status in Europe, and currently in position for what could be fourth and final Champions League spots, it’s been another wonderful week for Emery. His former club, Arsenal, the former league leaders, were defeated. On Sunday night, a complicated European project at Lille in the Europa Conference League was settled with the use of penalties. He will face fellow Basque Andoni Iraola on Sunday, and both have burnished the region’s existing reputation for producing. some of the most productive football coaches in Europe.
In the twilight of Steven Gerrard’s final defeat as Villa manager, the club was out of the relegation zone thanks to only goals scored and had only nine goals in 11 games, accumulated at a rate of 0. 8 per game. In his first full season, Emery has more than doubled that figure, to 1. 9, which is roughly the ninth-highest net spending in the Premier League last summer. He’s been an extraordinary coach for the past two seasons, and as the pieces recede this summer, he’s set the bar very high.
Emery, you could simply say, came from a very low base, and there’s plenty of room for improvement for a shrewd manager in his peak years, succeeding a rookie Premier League manager. However, the transformation of the Villa since the end of October 2022 shows what can be achieved when the right person is located.
When Gerrard was sacked, Villa were 10 points behind fifth-placed United. Erik ten Hag would lead United to third place this season with 1. 97 points per game. Last season’s games threw up 1. 96 points per game. From the start, the symptoms were crystal clear: this was a sensible choice. Emery’s Villa beat United in their first game in early November. Since the start of this season, their paths have actually diverged.
Ten Hag’s United fell to 1. 6 points per game. Under Emery, with 1. 9 points per game, Villa has thirteen more points than the United boss and a Champions League position that many would consider a minimum requirement for Ten Hag.
All of this is applicable now, because as some of Europe’s biggest clubs have potential new appointments, many will be wondering: where is our Emery?They would possibly even wonder if their Emery is actually Emery himself, although one suspects that Villa would have something to do with it. Say about that too. A unique taste for the game, a transparent improvement in individuals, intelligent performances in cups and leagues. All those things Emery has brought to Villa would be high on any list of requirements.
Ten Hag heads into the FA Cup semi-final against Coventry City, for whom defeat would be one of the wonderful upsets of the all-time low Cup. Two wins in their last nine games after a much better start. 2024 has been plagued by the same old issues related to a lack of identity in the game’s taste, erratic performances, and a general sense of drift. Still, no favourite has emerged yet to update it, if replacing it is indeed what Ineos is planning. To be done. Certainly, the arrival of Jason Wilcox as technical director to sign new general manager Omar Berrada and, probably, the imminent arrival of Dan Ashworth, would imply that the wheels are in motion.
Others, who have expressed interest in appointing a new coach, are also taking their time. Liverpool and Bayern Munich are yet to make a decision for next season after a rather long delay. Xabi Alonso has opted to stay at Bayer Leverkusen. Bayern’s plans for Julian Nagelsmann’s reunion with Julian Nagelsmann were temporarily suspended this week when the German Football Association (DFB) wanted not to let the factor overshadow this summer’s European Championship and extended his contract until 2026.
There have been times when the standout candidate for a club was obvious: Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool in 2015 and probably Rafael Benitez in 2004. The same goes for Jose Mourinho, at Chelsea in 2004, winner of the Champions League last season. Manchester City built the club to accommodate Pep Guardiola’s appointment, to the point of including Manuel Pellegrini as a sort of replacement for the intervening years.
This summer, clubs are being forced to think a little harder and re-examine the careers of those who possibly in the past would have been perceived as failures or simply feeling inadequate. Of course, the first step to managing United or Liverpool is to consider yourself worthy of the job, even if that doesn’t require a brilliant track record.
Emery’s misadventure at Arsenal, at a club ill-equipped at the time for a manager other than Arsene Wenger, proved to be the anomaly of his career rather than the rule. Like Klopp’s last season at Borussia Dortmund, with a seventh-place finish in the Bundesliga, it was more of an outlier than a preface to something of a decline in his career. Many would possibly make similar mistakes that don’t necessarily imply a broader view of their career.
Like, for example, Mohamed Salah, largely ignored by Premier League clubs in 2017 due to his time at Chelsea, has been a good signing for Liverpool. Emery’s thing lurks during the summer. The answer is there for those clubs looking for a coach: they just want a clear reason to see him.
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