Aston Villa manager Unai Emery
Unai Emery should not touch Manchester United - and vice versa
To begin, a preemptive apology: sorry, Nassef Sawiris, for any offence caused by the publication of this clumsily worded and entirely wrong column. Up the Villa, etc, so on and so forth. You are massive.
*But Jamie Carragher might have had a point.*
Aston Villa will never be Manchester United. Aston Villa will never beat Manchester United, at least at Old Trafford. Not when 2-0 up. Not when 4-2 up in stoppage time. Not when Manchester United are in the relegation zone and defeat would have sent them bottom.
Not when facing Sir Alex Ferguson (understandable). Not when visiting Jose Mourinho (acceptable). Not when up against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (less forgivable). Not when confronted by Erik ten Hag (really quite damning now). Not when needing a win to qualify for the Champions League, and being presented with a Ruben Amorim mess which had just been beaten in a final by Spurs (sackable offence).
In 10 trips to Old Trafford with four different teams against five different managers, Emery has led nine different times – 0-1 on four occasions, 1-2 twice, 0-2 twice and 2-4 once – and never won.
On two separate visits almost exactly four years apart, the Spaniard has had victory specifically gift-wrapped by Diogo Dalot and still contrived to f**k it up.
But this latest implosion alone doesn’t really preclude Emery’s Manchester United manager candidacy. Such absurdity can happen, rendering even the most intricate, complex gameplans moot. Arsenal beat Luton 4-3 once, before Mikel Arteta vowed to eradicate chaos from the sport entirely.
The problem, a red flag far bigger and more prominent than the costs required to extract Emery from Villa, emerged after the final whistle.
That interview. An incredibly entertaining watch. A delightful back and indeed forth, mirroring the preceding 90 minutes. But proof that Emery would disintegrate in this environment.
Villa are a huge club. An institution. They are in the Champions League, aiming to compete for trophies while vast amounts on their squad. There is an undeniable demand to deliver, to perform, to succeed.
Emery, as the face and brains of the project, exerting full and absolute control over each decision, will feel that.
But the idea he could replicate his Villa transformation at Manchester United is absolutely preposterous. If some light post-match poking causes such an inherent malfunction, imagine the consequences of being under that pressure and spotlight each week.
He alluded to an element of it himself. “My English is poor but is that clear or not?” Emery asked, increasingly incredulous, despite displaying a far greater command of a second language than many do their first.
The regular mockery he endured at Arsenal has thankfully, mercifully disappeared at Villa, but would be uncomfortably intense once more at Old Trafford. Everything would be examined, analysed and criticised more – not just his tactics, but his comments, his behaviour, his touchline conduct.
Emery struggled with the superclub weights of the Gunners and Paris Saint-Germain; Manchester United would be a step up in stature and climb down in current quality and standards. Michael Carrick can survive by saying as little as possible and relying on the Ferguson factor; the man many would choose to replace him would immediately combust when trying to balance coaching these players with managing the media and answering to Jason sodding Wilcox.
As Carragher said, Emery ‘can take his side to Barcelona, get soundly beaten 3-0, and it will be brushed off as an understandable setback against European aristocracy. United managers cannot suffer that kind of loss without more scrutiny.’
The way he failed to handle an infuriating result, admittedly in the heat of the moment, underlined how the perfect Villa manager would be a potentially disastrous Manchester United appointment.
Pierre Sage at Crystal Palace
Pierre Sage at Crystal Palace