Unai Emery had a very tough act to follow after taking over as manager of Arsenal following the departure of Arsene Wenger, and it was hardly a bed of roses for the Spaniard.
Despite putting together a 22-match unbeaten run, the Arsenal fans never really believed he was the right man for the job, and the task of taking the power away from the Gunners overpaid prima donnas just proved too much for him in the end.
We had great hopes of a trophy following on from Emery’s amazing record in the Europa League, having one three consecutive trophies with Sevilla, and although Emery took us right to the Europa League Final in Baku, we lost embarrassingly 4-1 to our noisy neighbours Chelsea.
That defeat put the writing on the wall for Unai, and having lost the Arsenal dressing room, he was sacked in November 2019 and replaced by Mikel Arteta. But amazingly, the following season he went to Villarreal and only won the Europa League yet again with the Spanish minnows.
Now he has returned to the Premier League with Aton Villa, and had a fantastic start to his reign by beating Man United in his first game, and he explained to the press that he is now more ready for the EPL after his experience with the Gunners. “I am better prepared to face a new challenge in the Premier,” Emery told MARCA. “I already have a year and four months of experience in this League.
“I think my first year at Arsenal was nice. It was broken by some things that I have identified that I am now going to try to avoid. I have always had an internal goal of having a new opportunity and coming back better prepared and I think that at Villarreal I have acquired a continuity that has led to them calling me back from England.
“It’s more of a challenge than a rematch. I had to accept it as something very professional.”
Despite his failure at Arsenal, it cannot be denied that he is a very competent and experienced manager, and we can only wish him well in his new job, except when Aston Villa play Arsenal of course!
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I like the guy and hoped he would have been given more time. Oh well…IJS
All the best to him.
He would have been given more time if he had not given into our sensationalist fanbase. He should weakness by letting our primadonna players and fans dictate the terms and conditions.
Big big mistake..
@Goonster
If it was as you say, then it was the board/owners who showed weakness. Just as the did with AW before him…IJS
Wenger and Emery showed weakness by letting the players and fanbase dictate. That would be enough for me as an owner to smell disaster.
If I employ a manager to run my small business but then they show such weakness then I would be nervous to keep them on. A manager letting his / her subjects dictate how things should run. Managers are meant to be ruthless and not there to please or make friends with the people they are meant to be leading.
Letting an employee turn up late whenever they feel like. Letting others laugh in your face with sentences like “Walahi, you are not a manager”. Letting your team member mock you in your face and on social media but then you are just let them back into the team. Being indecisive in your decision making. Letting the team etc.. No serious owner would be comfortable with such weak managers..
That is why Arteta is still here even if many still hold grudges against him. He showed authority, maturity, fairness and never let the same disruptive individuals overpower him.. Got rid of them in a blink of an eye when he noticed their tried and tested little games. He got rid of the disruptive primadonnas but the dressing room kept in his side. The rest of the squad continued to work hard / try their best for Arteta..
I second that!☝️
I like the Spaniard too and I too thought he needed more time, but in the end it was a mercy sacking more than anything else.
This is a great appointment by the villans to replace the over hype boss they had.
Wanna welcome Emery back in the league
and thank him for the 22 game unbeaten run and that derby victory he said at the time was one of the best in world football
Solid manager, I wish him well.
What has Emerys appointment as Villa manager got to do with Just Arsenal News and with our fans? It is of total irrelevance to me!
What happened to”once a gooner, always a gooner”?
Also,it might surprise you but JA doesn’t cater only for you.if you do not like or are not interested in an article,no one is forcing you to read it,let alone comment on it.i would have thought that someone as intelligent as you,would have got the message by now.your daily bashing of articles,attacks on some writers..have changed nothing.as much as you’d love it,Pat will not never consult you before posting articles.
“ahora ve a descansar/dormir Jon!!”.
Well Jon, in the interview he spokeabout his time at Arsenal. This article has MUCH more relevance to Arsenal fans than your totally irrelevant comment….
Good manager as his trophies show, they are not by accident. He had it tough by little support from the board, and was not given the players he wanted.
Add the overpaid average players we had, and it was doomed from the start. His style of football did not endear himself to the fanbase, but felt he was not given time to build anything at our club.
Oh well, nice guy it seems, wish him the best except against us. Hope our fans give him a respectful welcome on his return to the Emirates, and don’t mock and jeer him as before.
When he came to Arsenal, i thought he was a great appointment but his inability to converse properly in English at an English team was a massive handicap. I would hope he has brushed up on his English and is better prepared for the challenge. An excellent manager and a serial winner but in English football?
From what I’ve read the biggest issue for UA was his poor English – he wasn’t able to communicate with the players effectively and his antics onm the touchline during matches, waving his arms about and shouting incoherently, just confused the players.
He says he’s kept working at English while he’s been in Spain, so he was obviously looking for a return to the PL.
I wish him well, but not too well 🙂
OT: looks like Liverpool are going to be sold.
The comments from Klopp suggest that Henry has given up trying to compete with clubs that are financed by a state – domestically Manchester City (Abu Dhabi) and now Newcastle (Saudi Arabia), in Europe Paris St-Germain (Qatar).
I suspect the new financial rules replacing FFP influenced it as well, since they exempt gifts to clubs from counting towards limitations.
That will mean business people who loan money to clubs will be unable to compete with countries who give money to them.
And all that makes me wonder if Kroenke is thinking the same way. Getting out now would make sense while the club can be sold for £3-£4bn, before the state-financed teams take over, as they inevitably will.