Emery-Aston Villa: the coach leaves Villarreal during the year

From our correspondent Davide Chinellato

October 24
– London (ENG)

Aston Villa has chosen Steven Gerrard’s successor. It is Unai Emery, 50, who leaves Villarreal and will take charge of the Birmingham team (with whom she has signed a five-year contract worth 7 million euros a year) from November 1st, once the paperwork to obtain the visa has been completed. work needed to coach in the Premier League. In the next round of the championship, Saturday in Newcastle, the Villans will therefore still be led by Aaron Danks, on the bench for the 4-0 win over Brentford which on Sunday inaugurated after Gerrard.

The chosen one

—

Emery has already coached in the Premier League in 2018-19, when with Arsenal he reached the Europa League final lost 4-1 to Chelsea, and was then sacked at the beginning of the following season, a prelude to the arrival of Mikel Arteta on the Gunners bench . What shines the most in his resume are the 3 consecutive Europa Leagues with Sevilla between 2013 and 2016 and the successes with PSG, with which he got his hands on a French championship and two national cups. The Premier had already looked for him in November 2021, with Newcastle having thought of him for the bench, but Emery preferred to stay at Villarreal, brought to the Champions League semi-final after having sensationally eliminated Juventus and Bayern Munich before surrendering to Liverpool.

The challenge

—

Aston Villa preferred Emery’s experience (also paying the 6 million euros needed to free him from Villarreal), to the ambitious Amorim of Sporting Lisbon (which had a 30 million termination clause) and Thomas Frank, who did not he wants to leave Brentford. The Villans’ goal is to aim high: at the beginning of the season Gerrard spoke of a team that had to “remain constantly in the top 10 of the Premier League, with the idea of ​​winning a place in Europe”, but things went so bad that Emery takes charge of a team that in 12 days has put together 12 points and travels with a margin of 3 in the relegation zone. Gerrard lost the bench for this performance below expectations: Emery in November, with two weeks before the World Cup to study the team and then try to change gears after Christmas, will have to start from there.