Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided great insight on some key topics regarding his decision to join the club and his vision moving forward.
His tenure started brilliantly this past weekend after guiding us to a 3-1 win over Man Utd at Villa Park on Sunday, as he now prepares for another meeting with Erik ten Hag’s side in the League Cup in midweek.
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Having had limited time to work with the group prior to our win, Emery will no doubt relish building on that this week to get his ideas across to the players, and it’s hoped that we can continue to show improvement and pick up two more positive results before the World Cup break.
Going back to when he was in discussions over taking the Villa job though, Emery provided some really interesting insight into the process, particularly regarding his meeting with Villa chairman Nassef Sawiris.
Emery on Sawiris meeting
“I had the first meeting with the president of the club,” Emery told Marca. “He told me about an Aston Villa project, of history, of now and of what he wanted to build and of what he had seen in me. Of what I was capable of doing. He convinced me.
“He’s an ambitious man of his word and has conviction in the credibility that I have as a coach. As a coach I need a figure that looks me in the eye and conveys respect for the coach that I am.”
In a separate article, Marca also detail Emery’s account of his meeting with Sawiris, where he was presented with a blank sheet of paper and was asked to detail a winning club for him, as he noted that Sawiris stated: “Train my team and build me a new and winning Aston Villa.”
Not only is it brilliant to get an understanding of the way in which Sawiris operates, particularly in this situation, but it’s also great to hear how passionate he is about the club and our future given we don’t really hear from him directly.
Having landed his man, the Villa chairman will hope it will now lead to us being successful, and naturally there is hope that Emery can be a long-term appointment who takes us on an upward trajectory during his time at the club.
Meanwhile, he also went into detail on his mentality and approach to his new job, while providing an honest answer on how he will assess the current squad that he inherited from Steven Gerrard and the need to potentially bring in new players to take us forward, where and when he believes it to be necessary.
Emery on his mentality, respect and realistic talk on Villa squad
“Villa convinced me to return to the Premier League, challenges me to take steps in such a competitive league. I can build a team to return to Europe,” he added to Marca. “The first day everyone respects you, then on day 100 the percentage varies. When you have been there for a year, if you make it, respect is established. Respect must be earned every day. The most important thing is that they give you respect and you earn it. I want to be here for a long time.
“We must also talk about respect for the players. There are players here who are underperforming. I want to give them the opportunity to help them improve and improve their performance. But we have to be professionals and see if we are right in the changes we must make. You have to be very demanding in the changes. We want to improve the team and make the right decisions with new players. The template can be improved. We are convinced that we will be able to do it.”
It’s a humble yet no-nonsense mentality to have, and seeing Emery’s personality and character coming across in interviews so far has been brilliant.
Further, it’s refreshing to hear him have a realistic assessment of the situation he has come to, as although his full focus will no doubt be on improving his current players, getting the most out of the squad and making longer-term decisions off the back of that, he also knows he has to oversee continuous improvement at Villa and if reinforcements are needed, he will target them.
While it was a relief to see things start so well on Sunday, it’s hoped we can use that as a foundation and not only advance in the League Cup this week, but follow it up again in the Premier League as we face a difficult trip to Brighton at the weekend in our last outing before the break.
With Emery’s ongoing guidance and as his influence on the team grows during the process of stamping his identity on the group, it will hopefully mean we see more improvements and steps forward this week.
