Unai Emery’s Arsenal beat Steve Bruce’s Newcastle three times during the Spaniard’s first spell in EnglandNewcastle United have missed out on their number one managerial target after it emerged Unai Emery has rejected the chance to take over at St James’ Park.
That leaves ex-Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe and former Roma manager Paulo Fonseca on their shortlist to replace Steve Bruce, having held talks with both before identifying Emery as their preferred candidate.
Emery’s reputation in England was sullied by his time at Arsenal, where he was sacked after 18 months in charge, but he has had success pretty much everywhere else he has been.
So what kind of manager is Emery – and have Newcastle missed a trick by failing to persuade him to take the job?
Was Emery that bad at Arsenal?Only Arsene Wenger (57.25%) won a higher percentage of league games as Arsenal manager since 1986 than Unai EmeryEmery’s time at Arsenal was undoubtedly affected by taking over directly after the 22-year reign of iconic manager Arsene Wenger.
But on paper – by Arsenal’s recent standards – the 50-year-old Spaniard’s spell there was hardly a disaster.
In his only full season in charge they finished fifth in the Premier League – one point off the Champions League places – and reached the Europa League final, where they lost to Chelsea and therefore missed out on Champions League qualification. They also went on a 22-game unbeaten run between August and December (their best run since 2007).
In Wenger’s final two seasons they finished fifth and sixth and won an FA Cup.
Emery was sacked in November 2019 after 18 months in charge, with the club eighth in the table.
That is the position they ended up in that season – and the next under Mikel Arteta – and they are currently sixth.
There were legitimate reasons for Emery’s dismissal though – the club spent £130m that summer (including £72m on Nicolas Pepe) and they were on a seven-game run without a win (their worst sequence since 1992) when he was sacked.
Some of the criticisms of his time in north London were a difficultly in communicating his message to his players and supporters and an inability to fix the club’s defensive and mentality issues.
How much of these problems were part of a broader dysfunction at the club under the still unpopular Kroenke ownership is up for debate.
What has he done elsewhere in his career?Emery ranks ninth for the best win percentage of people to manage 300 La Liga gamesEmery has enjoyed a significant amount of success in his career – winning promotion or a major trophy with five of his nine clubs (including a record four Europa Leagues).
He has never finished in the bottom half of a table and has been out of work for less than a year in total since 2004.
However, both his two sackings (Spartak Moscow and Arsenal) have come in two of his three jobs outside Spain.
Emery won promotions with two Spanish teams and then led Almeria to their best ever finish in La Liga before four good seasons with Valencia.
The darkest spot in his career followed at Spartak when he lasted only 26 games in charge (and was sacked in the dressing room after a 5-1 derby defeat, according to Republic of Ireland winger Aiden McGeady).
But he was back in work weeks later with Sevilla and led them to a record three Europa Leagues in a row (as well as a then club-record 15-game unbeaten run).
Two seasons with Paris St-Germain produced a treble and two other cup wins – before his trophy-less spell with Arsenal.
In his first season – last term – at Villarreal he led them to their first major trophy – the Europa League.
He is a famous workaholic but is known to be tactically flexible, meaning he is happy to work with what he has rather than picking a team for one specific system.
His sides neither score, nor concede a lot of goals. Excluding his two seasons with PSG (83 and 108 goals), the 73 Arsenal netted in the 2018-19 Premier League was his highest-scoring league season. Also discounting PSG, his sides always concede over a goal a game (but never more than 1.5).
How has he done at Villarreal?Emery has won four of the past eight Europa Leagues (and lost another final)Considering he led Villarreal to the greatest day in their history – the Europa League final win over Manchester United – in only 16 months in charge, surprisingly his time there has been mixed.
Before his arrival the Yellow Submarine’s greatest achievements were finishing second in La Liga, winning the Intertoto Cup and several promotions.
They finished seventh in La Liga last season, which sounds quite good – but they have only finished lower than that on three occasions since 2003-04 (including a season in the second division).
Of the 14 people to manage Villarreal in La Liga, Emery’s win percentage (34.7%) is only ninth. If you factor out the bosses who did not last 20 games, Emery is eighth out of 10.
Villarreal have been one of the biggest spenders in La Liga since Emery arrived last season – and broke the club record with the £21m signing of Bournemouth’s Arnaut Danjuma this summer.
The feeling in Spain is that he should have been doing better with his squad – he has only won 17 of his 49 league games in charge and they are currently 13th, three points above the relegation zone.
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