Aston Villa appoint Unai Emery as manager

Dark Horse for the whole thing. Credit to them, their home support is great at a proper football stadium, Emery in Europe and they can beat anyone on their day.

We are probably the favourites this year as well, atleast one of the bigger ones, and we got absolutely battered at Villa Park last year.
 
I've picked Villa this weekend in my son's football teams last man standing, I'll soon bring them back down to earth with my luck in predictions.
 
Worth remembering that Villa were in 17th place with 9 points after 11 games when Gerrard was sacked.

He gained 52 points in the next 27 games and finished 7th.

68 points in the next season to finish 4th.

17 points this season and in 4th alongside the team that people touted to win the league this year (Arsenal, who they were also unlucky to lose against), 9 points from 9 in the CL including a massive win against Bayern and still in the League Cup too.

No flukes, just an extremely competent manager that has elevated the whole club to a new (old) level.
 
A fascinating study in management. Didn't do that well at Arsenal and yet goes to another PL team that is inarguably weaker and does a fantastic job. This is a prime example of why managers move clubs so often these days. You can't really tell how good a manager is if they fail in a certain job.
 
mctrials23 said:
A fascinating study in management. Didn't do that well at Arsenal and yet goes to another PL team that is inarguably weaker and does a fantastic job. This is a prime example of why managers move clubs so often these days. You can't really tell how good a manager is if they fail in a certain job.
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I don't know if it is a modern thing or not, but I definitely think we as observers tend to look at performance and ability (and development for that matter) in players and managers as a way too linear thing. I lean towards it being a more modern thing thanks to the whole "you are only as good as twitter think you are that given weekend" mentality.

Right coach, right personality, right methods at the right time with the right group of players has always been the case in manager performance, and while it is fine to single out those truly elite at their craft and rightfully expect that they would probably improve any team there is so much more to it, and the amount of working coaches in the game that can have unforeseen impact on any given team is probably larger than we realise.

That said, Emery certainly has had years of consistency now that ensures he will go down as very good manager on the whole. Maybe his methods and personality are less suited to high expectations or squads with big egos based on his PSG and Arsenal stints, but that could easily change if he gets the right job. Could easily see him be able to improve a team like Atletico from the stalemate Simeone has them in for example, and with that elevated level of players he would get his hand on the biggest of titles if he is succesfull. Hell, I wouldn't be shocked if he led Villa to one of the major trophies, all though that is not expected at all
 
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