Unai Emery appointment a big statement for Aston Villa – Darren Bent
Unai Emery being appointed the new Aston Villa manager is a “big statement” from the club, according to former striker Darren Bent.
The ex-Arsenal manager was suddenly announced as the new boss on Monday night (24 October) after leaving Villarreal, just hours after it appeared that Sporting’s Ruben Amorim was going to be the man to replace Steven Gerrard.
The Spaniard was sacked in November of his second season at the Emirates in 2019 but has won the Europa League four times with Sevilla and Villarreal, as well as the customary haul of trophies from two years at Paris Saint-Germain.
Bent is clearly impressed as, writing on his personal Twitter account as the news was starting to break, then ex-Villan said: “Unai Emery is a big statement for Aston Villa, Good coach, the timing was all wrong for him at Arsenal but you can’t doubt his pedigree”.
Sensible
Considering the ambitious talk before the season started had many envisaging Villa challenging around the Europa League spots this feels like the sort of man they should be going for.
Clearly no appointment is fool-proof but with the campaign so far going so badly it has to be considered a coup that the hierarchy have been able to convince Emery to make the switch so suddenly.
It is sure to have not been a cheap matter though, and on top of the investment in the transfer market in the last 12 months, and whatever it will have cost to pay off Gerrard and his coaching staff, it will need to provide a return.
The owners can’t be accused of scrimping when it comes to their push to take this club forward, and while that has got them precisely nowhere in the past year the hope has to be that this manager can be the one to lead that improvement.
He will be coming into a far more positive environment than the one that Gerrard left, thanks to the 4-0 thrashing of Brentford on Sunday (23 October), so his job will be to pick up right where Aaron Danks left off.
There was a logic to appointing the former Liverpool captain after his success with Rangers, but imports to the Premier League from Scotland, on the pitch or in the technical area, can sometimes sink or swim, and unfortunately he ultimately sunk at Villa Park.
Emery has Premier League experience already, and far more overall in his career, so there is more to suggest that this will work out, but the jury will remain out until he has been in charge for a few months at least.
In other Aston Villa news, Sam Allardyce says the Jack Grealish sale was behind the sackings of both Dean Smith and Gerrard.