Arsenal stepped into a new age for the first time since September 1996 when the club announced Spanish coach Unai Emery as their new manager to replace Arsene Wenger.
The appointment of the former PSG coach was a bit of surprise to followers of the game as he wasn’t a front runner for the job as least based on speculation.
Who is Unai Emery?
Unai Emery is a winner. He is a meticulous planner.
Spanish football expert, Guillem Balague who has followed Emery’s career during his time at Valencia and Sevilla had this to say: “He will bring a new voice, some new orders, obligations and responsibilities for the players and a lot of structure because you will soon see that Emery is not about personality and winning psychological battles with rivals. He is about a lot of detail, knowing in training what everybody is supposed to do. I think one of the virtues of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal was that a lot of the creativity was left to the players, moves that had to do with intuition and not so much of a clear plan. That, of course, has its benefits if the quality of the players is huge, but if you want to bring a bit of order to that, both in attack and defence, I think you get a better team”
Another Spanish football journalist David Cartlidge doesn’t believe Arsenal made a right choice in appointing Emery. According to him, Unai is an underwhelming appointment, doesn’t really profess good or winning football, too pragmatic and dogged by stubbornness with his systems.
We take a look at Unai Emery’s career. The Hondarribia born coach was thrown into the deep end of football management by Lorca club president when the manager position became vacant. He performed very well and helped the club achieve promotion to the second division for the first time in their history. Emery moved to Almeria, a club in the second tier of Spanish football and helped the Andalusia club secure promotion to La Liga. His performance at Almeria did not go unnoticed as Valencia came calling. He led Valencia back to the Champions League in his second season at the club and ensured qualification for the competition in his last three seasons in spite of the club’s financial challenges.
He had a brief four-month spell in Russia with Dynamo Moscow before returning to Spain in managed Sevilla. It was during his time at the Seville based club that Emery conquered Europe winning the Europa League in three consecutive seasons.
In the pursuit of European glory, PSG appointed him as their new head coach but his failure to achieve European success in spite of heavy investment and domestic dominance meant his services were terminated by the ambitious club at the end of 2017/18 season.
In some quarters, he is a meticulous operator with a penchant for video analysis. One of his former players, Joaquin said, “Emery put on so many videos I ran out of popcorn. He’s obsessed by football, it’s practically an illness.” Players are sent home with USB drives and urged to study away from the training ground.
He is a coach who has managed teams with limited resources and he has managed with unlimited resources. He has tasted success domestically and in Europe. And his passion for the game is similar to Wenger’s. “I live football as passion and emotion,” said the Spaniard recently. “My dad always said you have to value and respect the responsibility you’ve been given.
During his first press conference yesterday, Emery said “I’m very excited to be given the responsibility to start this important new chapter in Arsenal’s history, I am thrilled to be joining one of the great clubs in the game. Arsenal is known and loved throughout the world for its style of play, its commitment to young players, the fantastic stadium and the way the club is run. I’m excited about what we can do together and I look forward to giving everyone who loves Arsenal some special moments and memories.”
The Arsenal board have entrusted Unai with the responsibility of moving Arsenal forward. For better or worse, Emery is the appointed one.