ASTON VILLA
Which teams has Unai Emery coached in his career?
The Basque coach is enjoying roaring success with the Villa Park side as they look to qualify for the Champions League next season.
52-year-old Unai Emery is still very much enjoying his honeymoon spell with the Aston Villa. The Basque born coach was always disappointed with the manner in which he left Arsenal in 2019 and always claimed to have ‘unfinished business’ in the English Premier League.
Despite the overtures of Newcastle United in November 2021, Emery eventually accepted the proposal from Villa a year later with the club languishing above the relegation zone. The new managers impact was immediate as Villa put together an amazing run which saw the Villains winning fifteen of their twenty-five league games and secure 49 points from a possible 75 since his appointment.
The Irun born coach eventually took Villa to the club’s highest finish in the Premier League since the 2010–11 season with their seventh place finish enough to secure qualification to the UEFA Europa Conference League, the club’s first participation in European football since the 2010–11 season.
As things stand, the 2023-24 season has been even better for the Villa Park faithful as the team are on the cusp of securing a Champions League place for the first time in the club’s long history (Villa are former European Cup winners in 1982, but have never progressed to the UCL) and face Lille in the quarterfinals of the Conference League.
With work still to be done and the club now boosted by the recruitment of Sevilla’s former sporting director Monchi as President of Football Operations, Emery is certainly attending to this ‘unfinished business’ with Villa as the club look to finish the season on a high. Twenty years of management experience at all levels and in a variety of countries have been instrumental in forging the 2024 version of Unai Emery with the Basque coach seeing his stock soar after his incredible Villa Park turnaround.
Emery cuts his teeth in Lorca
After a knee injury ended his time as a player with Lorca, a 33-year-old Unai Emery was offered the vacant coaching position with the then third tier side and immediately he propelled the club to the second division for the first time in the outfit’s history which prompted neighbouring Almeria to snap him up. Once again, the Emery effect was repeated as in 2007, he steered the Andalusian side to their first ever LaLiga promotion and was snapped up by Valencia in 2008. Four years at Mestalla failed to yield any silverware despite regular appearances in the Champions League with Moscow the next destination of Emery’s managerial voyage.
His tenure at Spartak Moscow only lasted six months and was one of the lower points of his managerial career as a derby defeat to Dynamo ended his time in Russia before the door of opportunity at the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan (home to Sevilla FC) opened in January of 2013.
Sevilla silverware
With a 51% win-rate in his more than 200 games with the side from the Andalusian capital, Emery made history with his trio of Europa League wins with Los Hispalensis defeating Benfica (2014, Dnipro (2015) and Liverpool in 2016 and stayed in Seville for three years before a move to Ligue 1 in June 2016.
Despite a series of trophy wins with the Parisian giants, defeats to Barcelona (the famous 6-1 comeback) and Real Madrid in the Champions League in 2017 and 2018, Emery announced he would stand down as head coach despite a season outstanding on his contract.
North London was the next destination on Emery’s journey as he took over from Arsenal managerial legend Arsene Wenger in May 2018 and was always living in the shadow of the French coach with his tenure in London lasting just 19 months and after a winless of run of seven games, his time with the Gunners came to an end in November (2019).
Back to LaLiga
In July 2020, Villarreal confirmed Emery as new head coach on a three year deal as Emery and the club found a congruity as the coach looked to restbalish his profile after the Premier League disappointment and duly did so with the ‘Yellow Submarine’ as he club’s first ever major silverware with an Europa League win in 2021 with a penalty shoot out win over Manchester United.
The following season, he led Villarreal to the semi-finals of the Champions League with wins over Juventus and Bayern Munich, before being eliminated by Liverpool and in October 2022, after Villa paid his buyout clause of $5.3 million.