Unai Emery has given credit to Arsenal for being a part of his journey to becoming a better manager after he won the Europa League with Villarreal.
The Spaniard was Arsenal’s first manager after Arsene Wenger’s more than 20-year reign.
He joined the Gunners after winning the league in France with PSG to add to his already glittering CV which included winning three consecutive Europa League trophies with Sevilla.
He helped the Gunners to reach the final of the competition in his first full season, but he was fired halfway through the 2019/2020 season and replaced with Mikel Arteta.
It is never a good time to fire a manager if you ask the victim and Emery must have felt he needed more time to turn things around.
Villarreal has now trusted him with their managerial job and he repaid the faith shown in him by leading them to the Europa League title.
He says he has learnt a lot in his journey as a manager, including being the coach of Arsenal for over a year.
Emery said after the victory over Man United via Mirror Football: “I believe it’s not a sporting revenge at all.
“I try to enjoy every moment, winning and losing. I try to create new circumstances, so everywhere I have been, even in England at Arsenal, I have learnt a lot, met many people, other cultures and football.
“At the end of that story was professional frustration, but some other doors opened then.
“Winning today is a satisfaction, but for my club today, as it was when I was at Sevilla.”
Emery has found his home.
Taking 5th or 6th placed sides to the EL final is his specialty.
He tried France and England but elite clubs want top 4 and titles.
Spain and Spanish speaking is his strength.
Arteta is at a much earlier stage of his journey.
At City they had a team of diamonds with tiny flaws which needed a little polishing.
At Arsenal the diamonds are either young and in need of time consuming cutting and polishing or older diamonds which have become deeply rutted with ingrained flaws.
Polishing turds is no fun so Arteta is now all about ridding the club of the turdso and refreshing the squad with new diamonds.
What he needs are scouts with a clear eye who deliver to him top quality diamonds
Edu and co need to step up.
Wyoming, when Emery “tried France”, he won 8 of the 9 domestic titles available with PSG, (a bit better than top four”). The only manager, who has won more at PSG, was Blanc with 11 over more seasons. He also has a higher win percentage than Blanc, Ancellotti, Tuchel and Ponchettino.
Am I the only one sick and tired of you not researching facts and thus talking out of your arse?
It’s PSG Ozzie it’s not like comparing the league in England ,he had a strike force valued at around 500 million pounds ,the only thing he will be remembered by there is for that CL screw up against Barca .
I’m with Wyoming ,he’s a specialist manager in 2nd rate cup competitions ,let’s be honest he only got to the final this year because he came up against Arteta who quite frankly is clown .
Let’s see who come in for him seeing that there are now loads of jobs available ,that should be telling .
Madrid
Juve
Inter
PSG
Spurs
Maybe Barca
If he’s that good surely one of these teams will come in for him .
Dan, my question then, if PSG and Valencia aren’t “big clubs”, what does that make Arsenal?
People praise Ancellotti, Tuchel and Ponchettino yet they like Emery managed PSG and the fact of the matter is he has a better record than all of them.
Given that the second ranked EPL club can’t beat the seventh ranked Spanish club in a one off final doesn’t say much for the standard of the EPL.
A lot of people, Arsenal fans slagged Emery off for not being a top coach. Well those people are plain ignorant because the guy is a top coach, he knows how to take a team and get the best out of it. His problem at Arsenal was purely down to translation and the fact he came over poorly in English. Well done to him, he deserves better than Arsenal offered him anyway. TOP COACH.
👍 Top coach and always conducts himself with class, as exemplified by his comments on his time at Arsenal.
By the way additional information for Wyoming, in Spain in the 4 seasons of managing Valencia, he took them to 6th, 3rd, 3rd and 3rd (ie three “top four” finishes) in a league dominated by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, as well as winning 3 Europa League trophies with Valencia.
I’m certainly not going to dispute the facts you have presented ozziegunner but something went horribly awry at Arsenal. He should, on the basis of his achievements in Spain and France, have easily secured a top4 spot and the Europa league at Arsenal. Reggie uses his lack of English as a possible reason cum excuse but why did the team down tools on Emery? They must have had a reason or was it that they were just so rich that they didn’t care?
@SueP. They simply formed a kind of solidarity for their colleague, Ozil. Where are those today? They were all unsellable. Even lowly Schalke04 is rejecting one today…
That I’m afraid Stephen is not a good enough excuse for me.
Solidarity with Ozil! What did he have to moan about? A cracking £18m per year long term contract and millions of adoring followers on social media. He had it all.
As for Ozil today, he got the move and his contract paid up. Ditto the others pretty much. Not a bad life for any of them all things considered
Class !he was having little dogs at us for months when he left .
Have you ever heard Wenger do such things ,now that is what you call a class manager
Dan, what breed of “little dogs”? Can you give examples and can you blame him for being pissed off?
Emery =Jack Russell
All bark but no bite
Jack Russell’s are great “ratters”. Too bad Emery wasn’t able to remove the rats infesting Arsenal FC.
A top coach would be able to get 1 point from the last 4 games Reggie ,imagine if we had ,we wouldn’t be where we are now ,we would prob be top 4 it no after 3 years we are further away than ever and that is down to Emery and Arteta.
Dan, Emery should have taken the penalty instead of Aubameyang against Spurs. He probably would have scored.
Nothing much a manager can do, if the players “dog” it.
DAN KIT, YOU CLEARLY KNOW LITTLE ABOUT DOGS, TO JUDGE FROM YOUR JACK RUSSELL COMMENT.
That’s strange Jon As I was bought up with Jack Russells so maybe I know quite a lot more than you buddy
.
To be fair Dan kit, a rather nasty JR nearly had my spaniel’s nose for dinner. Blood everywhere
Dan, bet you didn’t have many rats at home.
Emery is a decent coach, no doubt!! Has good football ideas!!
MA is also decent BUT he coaches with too much Fear, Caution, Rigidity and always tries to please his paymasters!!
Dis is his biggest fault!!
Personally, he seems afraid of Xhaka, Auba, Laca n some oder big players!!
Guardolia, Mourihno, Klopp, Tuchel,@40 years of age were Confidence personified!!
Sb here said in one of the articles, dat he needs to work on himself before even working on his players!!
Wish him Success next season!!
Ozzie.. It didn’t work out for UE with us the way we’d all hoped, but that’s all in the past now. Think of the here and now – Emery has won another EL and is now in the CL, while we have no European football for the first time in donkey’s years!!
Nowhere to hide for MA now. We’re heading back to the stadium and he really needs to start delivering….
I’m hoping both Arteta and the Kronkes prove my feelings of doom and gloom wrong. Clear out the crap, buy new better quality players and make some “serious” progress. Winning 5 games with no pressure isn’t improving IMO. I’m trying really hard to get behind MA for next season but it’s proving difficult!
👍 👍
I’m with you completely, GG. When we start with 5 wins then I’ll be impressed!! I was going to say if we do well in Europe… but… 😄
Very difficult!!
GG. Who are the craps? Unless you want MA to take out himself and the Kroenkes, and maybe Hector, I don’t see no craps no more. MA isn’t just crap, he is the biggest scam in football coaching history.
Thank you Sue for pointing that out. Emery beat EPL’s 2nd positioned team and won a trophy. Arteta was beaten by the same Emery home and away. Emery will be participating in next year’s Champions League. So I am sure it simply means he is doing a great job for his current team. Arteta must certainly deliver. We hope he does.
Exactly 👍👍. I think it’s safe to say Unai had the last laugh!
For me Unai Emery is a very good manager, I have a lot of respect for the man.
A lot has been made of the “language” issue.
This manager did not hide behind a translator, sometimes used for the “lost in translation” excuse in sticky situations, but was respectful and challenged himself enough to learn the native tongue of the country he was working in ……. not only to improve communication at the club, but out of respect.
A manager who is a “specialist” in taking sides to 5th or 6th in the table (Europa League) – yes, sides who should be finishing 9th or 10th.
My opinion will never change.
Would Emery have taken us on to former glories – perhaps not in the long term.
Consolidation was the name of the game, and to regain a solid footing.
Was he short changed at our place – yes.
Why do I say that.
It is no coincidence that clearly one of Arteta’s remits upon arrival, was to identify negatives in the squad and remove them.
For me it was these negatives that hastened Emery’s departure.
This man who has won 4 EL cups (three on the spin) could not muster 1 point from in 4 games ????
A manager who took us to Baku and THAT display resulted ?
“He has lost the dressing room” came the cry.
Ever heard of “The Dressing Room Losing The Manager ” ?
And the best we could do was “Good Ebening”.
I wonder what Nevilles’ Spanish was like.
I respect your opinions AJ and agree with some. I wonder why he could win the EL so often but fail to get that one point or the EL trophy with a team like Arsenal? I think it’s a fair question. He is lauded for having a great record elsewhere so why did he fail at Arsenal? Why were these negatives allowed to rule the roost? Why did the club then not support him when these negatives were stirring things up sufficiently to cause the disastrous end to the season? He must bear some responsibility as an experienced man.
Hi SueP.
Yes, there is always a counter opinion – and as always, you put yours so well.
I guess unless we were that “fly on the dressing room wall” we’ll never know what truly went down.
All I do know is next season, no more excuses – we can only watch & hope … and it is the constant hope and let down that gets so frustrating.
AJ brilliant comments, I keep asking myself the same question, how can a coach who won 3 Europa cup in a row, has the highest winning percentage of any coach in the history of psg and took Valencia to top 4, three seasons in a row, now all of a sudden find it difficult to get 1point from his 4 games. And that final in Baku was totally down to the players, the only mistake he made in that match was not starting iwobi who was our only ball carrier at that time.
Note: since he left Valencia they haven’t finished in the top4, and since he left psg, they haven’t won that many trophies in a row, and for those who didn’t know, he didn’t have the likes of Neymar and Mbappe in his first season as Psg manager. I looked at the players he used against Manchester United and 70% of them are past it but still he won the Europa with them, Moreno was a Liverpool reject Coquelin was deemed not good enough for us, Carlos Becca is at least 34, their captain Raul abiol is 35 years, the only creative player they have is Chukwueze and he didn’t even play in the final because of injury. In case we’ve all forgotten he had sokratis the wrestler he had Mustafa, he had Stephan lichentner he had Torrera. In his first season we didn’t have any winger except from iwobi, but still some still say he’s a poor manager ooh sorry I mean coach because the club only made him a coach.
Whatever the problem was, sadly for Emery he couldn’t solve it
Lenohappy.. Bloody hell Raul Abiol is 35?!! He’s the one I thought looked about 50 😂
Don’t think many expected him to beat the Mancs, so fair play to him!
And I agree – AJ’s comments are spot on!
The problem was SueP was that, from day one the support for Emery from the Board and management was limp. During his tenure Gazidis and Mislantat left. He was appointed “head coach” not manager, he was not supported in the transfer market to buy the players he wanted and he was not supported in his disciplinary action against recalcitrant players. If you recall when Ozil was dropped from the team, the Board forced him to reinstate him despite poor form and inconvenient absense due to injury. The Ozil clique undermined Emery without him getting any support. It is interesting that when they tried the same tricks with Mikel Arteta, he did get the support to purge the Club.
Next season is make or break for Arteta- well the first few weeks will show if he has learned from the past and whether targets are signed by Edu are right for the team
What a sensible and truthful post AJ.
We, myself included, should be ashamed of the way we treated a good man and a proven manager elsewhere(both prior and since) who simply had difficulties with speaking English. That there is a person on JA whose profile is “Good ebening” speaks volumes (esp. about that person). I have to assume that person is himself perfect in every respect!
Jon, those stupid fans who made jest of Emery because his English is not perfect should be ashamed of themselves. Can Roy hogson speak Spanish, does Sean dyche speak Spanish, does Neville speak Spanish, I can go on and on but still the man challenged himself and learn some basic English language, but still some idiots fans make jest of him.
👍 And Roy Hodgson can’t help his speech impediment.
Arsenal was in hurry to sack Emery, the club should have been patience with him, maybe, we would have been the winner of this year EL trophy. What a shame to miss out in European competition.
It’s a sad day when so called Arsenal fans are salivating over a manager who’s height is the Europa league. I still say Arsenal is bigger and better than Unai Emery and this clown Arteta. Good riddance. Enough is enough kmt
Jah son.
So those who have different opinions to that of yourself are ” so called Arsenal fans ” ?????????
AJ
Hypocrites!!!!!!!!!
Chase out the man for top four + champions league now gushing over Arteta’s fa cup and Emery’s Europa. Sad day and to think seniors are doing it. Senile who knows.
Jah son you are not making any sense, how can arsenal be bigger than Emery considering he has won the Europa cup 4 times and we have never win any🤔🤔
Well said, AJ. Jah son never had a good word to say about Unai Emery and it is now interesting to see that he is back again. He conveniently forgets that Arsene Wenger did not achieve “top four + Champions League” in his last 2 seasons.
Should Mikel Arteta stay I will support him fairly and be the first to congratulate him should he bring further success to Arsenal.
Maybe senile , as I’ve been supporting the club for nearly 60 years – but then again I’m only a “so called fan”.
Ironic really, as a large part of my original comment was about …………..respect !
AJ and Lenohappy. The above post was supposed to go here under AJ’s comment.