Head coach. Master tactician. Workaholic. A man keen to learn from his mistakes and who will accept only the very best from his players.
If anything has served to underline all of those elements of Unai Emery’s personality, it is the past four days.
Emery has never denied or thought it necessary to apologise for his footballing obsession, saying: “In each profession, you need to feel passion for that in order to give it your best performance. Football is my passion.”
It has never suited everyone that he has worked with. La Liga legend Joaquin was a great admirer of the coach when they worked together during his time at Valencia but even he finally cracked under the pressure.
He said: “Emery put on so many videos, I ran out of popcorn! He’s obsessed with football – it’s practically an illness. He’s one of the best managers I’ve had. I worked with him for three years, I couldn’t handle a fourth!”
Last Sunday, his Aston Villa side were held to a draw at Ipswich Town, a team many have tipped for Premier League relegation. But then on Wednesday, Villa produced a superb display to defeat European giants Bayern Munich, on a raucous evening on the claret and blue side of Birmingham.
“He gets really angry when he sees the players not doing the things that have taken them to the Champions League and he lets them know all about that,” said Spanish football expert Guillem Balague of his compatriot.
“The day after the draw against Ipswich, he varied his training session because of what had happened instead of simply planning for Bayern.
“He has an impressive CV and knows what it takes to win at whatever level and he is applying those skills at Villa.”
During a season of farce and failure on and off the pitch in 2015-16, Villa were heavily criticised for a rebranding exercise in which they removed the word ‘prepared’ from their club crest.
And while it has not returned on the players’ shirts, Emery has become the personification of the long-standing motto since he walked through the doors at Villa Park in October 2022.
A focus on small details was the underlying theme early in his reign, with his own ‘marginal gains’ approach to technical and tactical aspects of the game laying the platform for the club’s transformation from strugglers in 14th to seventh and then fourth-placed finishes.
“I’m not the kind of coach who says, ‘Let’s do a few piggy-in-the-middle exercises and go home for lunch,” he once said.
Stories quickly emerged of how he had compiled dossiers on each of his players before joining Villa, and then once in the role, how he could often be seen leaving the club’s Bodymoor Heath training ground late into the night.
A regular in the club’s gym, his time on the treadmills and bikes is not used solely for exercise or to listen to music or podcasts.
It is here that he watches repeatedly and analyses recordings of upcoming opponents’ strengths and weaknesses before relaying them to his players.
“He can typically watch the video of the same game four or five times and he then goes into the analysis with the players himself adding details and lines to explain whatever he wants, what went wrong, what to improve,” Balague added.
“These meetings can be over an hour long, talking about attacking and defence in a lot of detail. From general ideas on how the game should go, movements and positional information, to scenarios they will face.
“The detail in the session before the Bayern game was a 70-minute chat about how the German side attack and how Villa could counter and attack themselves. So every player walking onto the pitch is filled with the information they need.
“He is also very big on individual coaching so his players all get clips on their direct opponent. The important thing is that he is surrounded by people who work as long and as hard as he does. After all his media duties were done, they spent two hours after Wednesday’s game talking about it before training on Thursday morning.”
Former England and Villa winger Tony Morley, who won the European Cup with the club in 1982, added: “Emery’s substitutions this season and ever since he came to the club have been first class.
“His awareness of what it is going on, on the pitch, is as good as anyone else.”
Emery’s impressive resume includes three successive Europa League titles at Sevilla – in 2014, 2015 and 2016 – another at Villarreal in 2020-21 and a Ligue 1 championship at Paris St-Germain, plus two French Cups, two French League Cups and two Trophees des Champions.
However, there was also the disappointment of his 18-month tenure at Arsenal where he lost his job in November 2019 after their longest winless run for 27 years.
But that setback has ultimately helped him prosper in his second spell in England.
“He has learned from his time at Arsenal, where he did not feel protected – and what he has done is actually bring his director of football and a range of other staff from doctors, coaches and physios,” added Balague.
“What is happening at Aston Villa is unique in world football. No other club of the stature, history and potential of Villa have given a blank canvas to one person – Unai Emery.”
Those allies include Monchi, the president of football operations who was with him in Seville, Damian Vidagany and the experienced Pako Ayestaran as his right-hand man.
There are also other assistants he has had in previous jobs, such as Pablo Villa, Antonio Rodriguez, Victor Manuel Manas, plus those added recently, such as set-piece specialist Austin MacPhee. They all have a say, but Emery makes the final decision.
Vidagany, who initially arrived as his personal assistant, is tasked with handling the aspects of management away from the training pitch. Ayestaran, who helped Liverpool win the Champions League in 2005 under Rafa Benitez, adds an experienced and respected presence to a support team that Emery trusts implicitly.
One football agent, who asked not to be named, described Emery as a relatively private individual who does not get too involved with the distractions away from coaching his players.
Emery’s whole family are steeped in footballing history. Both his father and grandfather were goalkeepers with Real Club Irun, the club now owned by Unai and run by his brother Igor.
Born and raised in the Basque country in northern Spain, Emery exemplifies the work ethic and values of the region, often taking staff out for meals to retain a family-like bond.
“The intensity he has comes from his mother,” added Balague. “The responsibility comes from his dad who wanted his children to study and to finish everything they started.
“That is where everything started and the fuel that has made him one of the best managers in the world right now. Add the wish and need to keep learning, the ambition to keep moving and a club that has backed him up fully and what you get is Aston Villa today.”
