Unai Emery isn’t a vindictive man but he will surely have allowed himself a smile on Friday morning.
Greeted with chants of “Unai, you bastard, get away from the Mestalla” as he arrived at his former home on Thursday, perhaps Valencia fans will regret giving their old coach more motivation.
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Arsenal’s Spanish head coach Unai Emery celebrates during their UEFA Europa League semi-final win over Valencia
With three successive top three finishes, Emery remains Valencia’s best performing boss since Rafael Benítez. Yet he still irks a large section of a fanbase with a disproportionate sense of entitlement for a club that hasn’t won a trophy in over a decade. One that has since seen its status as Spain’s third power seized and bettered upon by Atlético Madrid.
Now that Emery has denied Los Che a European final place at the Mestalla for the second time since he left (his Sevilla dramatically eliminated Valencia there in the last second of a Europa League semifinal in 2014), he will no doubt irk his critics even more.
Yet while Valencia fans sulk, the Basque is being hailed as “Mister Europe League”, as El Mundo aptly put it. “Destiny decided that he would once more play at Mestalla for the chance to fight for a trophy. And he won again. Once again the Basque silenced a stadium that he never had an understanding with, who greeted him with boos last night,” the Spanish paper wrote.
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The boos have long been there, but they were no doubt strengthened by that still painful memory of Europa League elimination at the hands of Emery’s Sevilla five years ago. Some in Valencia feel the coach should not have celebrated that night, that he should somehow have not enjoyed what at the time was the confirmation of his first ever place in a European final.
Asked this week by Valencian media if he regretted his celebration, the Arsenal boss was unrepentant.
“Football has meant strong emotions to me my entire life. I was practically born with a football, and my emotional connection to it remains intact. I’ve gone through that process at every team I’ve been at. I want to go through it at Arsenal too, said Emery.
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Arsenal will face Chelsea in the UEFA Europa League final in Baku, Azerbaijan
Thanks to the 4-2 demolition job on Thursday, Emery is now well on course to going through that same emotional winning process with The Gunners. “An executioner named Unai,” was how Valencian newspaper Levante-EMV described the triumphant manager on Friday morning, pointing out that he has seized from Valencia the same kind of spirit of effectiveness in European semifinals that they were once known for.
Prior to 2012, Valencia had progressed from all four of the European semifinals they had reached across the UEFA Cup, Cup Winners’ Cup and Champions League. In 2012, in his final season at the Mestalla, Emery’s became the first Valencia team to fall at that stage of a European competition in the club’s history
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Valencia players look dejected after Unai Emery led Arsenal to victory in their UEFA Europa League semi-final
The trend has continued since, but much to the dismay of Valencia’s support, it hasn’t stuck for their former manager. That defeat to Atlético Madrid remains the only European semifinal the Basque coach has failed to progress from. And who would bet against him making it four trophy wins in four Europa League final attempts since?
One person who has no doubt over the Arsenal manager’s quality was the person attempting to stop him this week. “You have to admit that the opponent was superior, congratulate them, and wish them the best,” Marcelino admitted.
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Emery celebrates during Arsenal’s win over his old team.
“Emery is a great coach, I have a lot of personal and professional admiration for him. His teams have a clear idea, a philosophy, and as such he’s a coach who plans matches really well,” the Valencia coach concluded. On Thursday Emery planned a European match to perfection once more. Even Valencia fans would have to concede that.
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