In this exclusive interview, Aston Villa’s Unai Emery shares stories of rolling dice to pick his team at Almeria and buying books for players at Valencia; Watch Ipswich Town vs Aston Villa live on Sky Sports Premier League this Sunday from 1pm; Kick-off 2pm
Wednesday 25 September 2024 18:02, UK
There is a story from Unai Emery’s time at Almeria that seems so out of character that the initial assumption is that it cannot be true. This was his first ever fixture as a top-flight manager, a dauting trip to Deportivo La Coruna on the opening weekend.
On the eve of the encounter, Emery, a man who has since built his reputation on meticulous planning, announced to his squad that he would a roll a dice to decide the starting line-up. The master tactician prepared to leave his team selection to chance.
The year was 2007 and Emery had won praise for taking Almeria to LaLiga for the first time, having previously impressed at Lorca Deportiva. But his reputation was far from entrenched. A gimmicky move by a 35-year-old coach could blow up in his face.
Speaking to Emery at Aston Villa's training ground, 17 years and four European trophies later, the question is an obvious one even if he is a bit surprised that the topic has come up. What was he thinking? He smiles at the memory and begins to offer an explanation.
"This issue in that moment was only about giving confidence to the players," he tells Sky Sports. "When I decided to do it, it was because I was thinking that I wanted to send the message to them that I believed in everybody and I was willing to play everybody."
He continues: "They all have to be comfortable in the structure, feel important and understand the way to play. They have to feel that confidence. They have to feel the coach's belief in them. This is football. This is management. It is more than tactical."
Did it work? "Yes, it worked. We won 3-0." The rest is history. Almeria would finish one place above Deportivo in eighth. Emery moved to Valencia in the summer, embarking on the brilliant coaching career that has won him titles and trophies at home and abroad.
It is a revealing anecdote because it shows another side to what makes Emery so excellent at his job. The stories of his seemingly endless video sessions are well told, the set-piece coaching, that devotion to detail that separates the good from the great.
But as he points out, there is more to management than this. It is about taking others with you. "When you are managing people, you have to try to get their heart, get their emotions, try to be close to them, supporting, helping, being demanding," he explains.
In the past, that has even extended to buying books for his players to read. At Valencia, he went so far as to purchase two for everyone in the squad, each specific to them. He did not force it on his players. They were invited to visit his office if they were interested.
Some were not keen. Others were. Juan Mata would even return seeking fresh material. Speaking to Emery about the reasons for this, he explains that it was driven by his own experiences. "I wanted to do it because I improved a lot by reading books," he says.
"When I was a player, I did not read. It was only when I finished as a player and I started to coach that I started reading books and I found it helped me a lot. I wanted to take advantage of that experience that I had by trying to help my players a little earlier."
What sort of books? "Everything. Reading about football or about life can help them as a person and as a professional." He has read biographies of Pep Guardiola and Marcelo Bielsa but also works by the late essayist Manuel Vazquez Montalban.
"I do it to balance myself, to get that balance in difficult moments. When you are playing competitively, you are winning, losing, winning, losing. How can you manage yourself through that, find the balance emotionally, with the supporters, with the media?"
Emery once said that he was not born a coach, he turned himself into one. Stories like this illustrate that well. This once diffident player - he has described the willowy winger from Real Sociedad as far too tentative to get near his own team - just keeps learning.
He has not bought books for his Aston Villa players just yet but nor has he ruled it out. "I did it in Valencia, not yet here, but hopefully I will take time to help them as well." The dice trick from his days at Almeria is less likely to be repeated but the principle remains.
"I am not using the same idea but the feeling is the same," says Emery. "I believe in every player and I want them to feel that. My confidence is 100 per cent with every player. And of course they have to try to respond to me with the same confidence."
Villa's schedule is particularly demanding, the new Champions League format guaranteeing at least eight fixtures in that competition. It will need all of the squad but Emery is ready for that. "I like to play a lot of matches," he says. "It is what we want."
Indeed, Almeria is the last time that Emery did not compete in Europe during the course of a season. "I like to enjoy different competitions. I like to be competitive. We are going to play a lot of matches and we have to be aware of how to manage that."
He talks of "trying to find the balance" in terms of managing the players' minutes and he knows that some rotation is inevitable. "You have to be full of energy," he explains. "I am going to try to be clinical as well with how we can manage the different competitions."
He adds: "I will be demanding like I was before, because I know the only way is hard work." If his team can do that, they can surprise again. "We can replace some teams that have more money than us. I believe in the players. I believe we can progress."
It will mean coaxing more from less, from turning talented players into truly elite ones. The example of Ollie Watkins is already obvious. Jhon Duran looks like he could be next. The task of Emery the tactician, Emery the psychologist, is to draw that out of him.
"Firstly as a person, and secondly as a player. His potential is there. It is in his body, in his hunger, in his mentality. Of course, my responsibility, my challenge, is to exploit it." Emery may be a dice-roller but his ongoing ability to do that has nothing to do with luck.
Watch Ipswich Town vs Aston Villa live on Sky Sports Premier League this Sunday from 1pm; Kick-off 2pm
