How quickly fortunes can change eh. Fresh from a much needed, and good, victory over Brentford at the weekend, everyone though Aaron Danks would be in the hotseat for a little bit longer as we looked for a proper manager to replace the uneducated gamble that was Steven Gerrard – but we didn’t have to wait that long as late last night Aston Villa confirmed Unai Emery was back to prove a point.
Aston Villa is delighted to announce the appointment of Unai Emery as the club's new Head Coach. 🟣
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 24, 2022
The 50-year-old Spaniard had a reasonable player career, but has excelled at both Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain and more recently Villarreal and his personal trophy cabinet boasts multiple Europa League, and French domestic winners medals.
Most fans know him from a torrid time at Arsenal where their off pitch issues took centre stage as he tried to turn them around, so he comes into Villa Park for a fresh project and with plenty to prove in the English game.
A challenge he knew would one day face him again as he’s continued to learn the language, despite working in La Liga since 2020.
Having reportedly paid a release fee of £5.2million for his services, let’s hope he hits the ground running sooner rather than later as we could all do with something to cheer about again and it would be nice to get back on track having wasted the last 12 months on a PR gimmick.
Emery officially takes charge on November 1.
Welcome to the club, so let’s try and enjoy the ride again.
I have not watched the game against Newcastle but from the sky text commentary it appears that we were lackluster and not with it at all. Unai has a job on his hands cleaning out the rot in the squad, not rotten players so much as something which affects the player’s attitudes. Ever since MoN walked out in a huff there has been something or other lurking in the background. We may be grateful for the players “seeing off” Gerard but they’d better buck their ideas up pretty quickly. He’s a good manager if the squad is behind him and believes in him. He had a similar problem at Arsenal and failed to sort it out, if he has something to prove it is turning out club around.
Amen – I was not in favour of our last gaffer, but that’s not to say players should be looking in the mirror right now.