Inside the mind of Unai Emery
Obsessive Arsenal boss wins over players with his work ethic and impressive ability to communicate ideas
IN THESE exclusive extracts from a new biography of Arsenal manager Unai Emery, those closest to him share their insights into how he works – from his obsessive attention to detail, to the intense bonds he forges with his players, and the relentlessly high standards he expects from them.
Laurent de Palmas
Played for Emery at Almeria We called him enfermo de futbol (sick with football) because that’s what he is. He drinks football, eats football, sleeps football, and we wondered whether he didn’t f*** football.
I always felt close to Unai. We had several arguments, but they were always face-to-face, which I appreciated. He’s not the kind of trainer who talks behind your back.
Once, we were losing 0-2 at half-time to Malaga. In the dressing room Unai made me feel terrible, lower than low. My team-mates were gobsmacked, because I hadn’t been much worse than others. But I knew why he was on my case.
Shortly before, I’d received an offer from Elche, and we’d talked about it. They were offering me a good contract, but Unai asked me to wait until the end of the season to find out if I’d be given another year at Almería. He knew how to talk to everyone, and that day he got at me because he knew I’d react.
“You’re such a good player, but where are you? Hey, where exactly are you, joder [f***]!” That got me so mad that in the second half I played a blinder and helped create two goals.
Juan Mata
Played for Emery at Valencia Unai is the manager who works hardest at set-pieces. And he would change tactics depending on who we were facing. He was constantly coming up with new ideas.
We were often surprised, because it could seem very complicated and you had to concentrate a lot, apart from anything else trying to remember what the plan was for different games, because it changed all the time!
I remember above all a free-kick we used to do in the middle of our opponents’ half. Instead of sending the ball up the middle of the pitch where everyone was crowding in, we would put two players on each side and two in the centre.
At the sides, one player screened the other, who darted forward towards the far post. The player taking the free-kick would raise an arm to show which side the ball would go. I don’t know if Unai still does it, but if it’s the right arm, then it’s going to the righthand side! Apart from the set-pieces, I think what’s special about Unai is the way he communicates. In his talks, he used to write three, four or five things on the board: those were the points he was going to bring up. Sometimes it was five phrases or metaphors he was going to explain. I’ve never seen that with my other managers.
They usually revolved around phrases about positivity, camaraderie, the values he wanted to create in his team. He communicated by means of the points he had written down.
His talks could go on and on because he didn’t notice the time, but what he said was always intense, and he would ask you questions. It became a kind of seminar.
Igor Emery
Unai’s brother and confidant I went with him for Arsenal’s pre-season tour in Singapore. I saw how much hard work he put in. As we left the plane, he told the squad: “We’ll pass by the hotel, then straight to training.”
The humidity made the heat impossible, it was the middle of the day, after such a long journey, and yet none of the players protested. That was a positive sign, even if everything looks rosy when a new coach arrives.
What I mean is that the players are open to changes, to question themselves and to make an effort. The training was intense, I was very glad I didn’t have to do it...
Dimitri Popov
Emery’s sporting director at Spartak Moscow Unai didn’t understand the Russian mentality. He was too generous with the players. There was a lack of dis- cipline, the training sessions weren’t taken seriously. He let them off without a fine because sometimes he was the one at fault.
One day, we were travelling for a championship game, and one of the players had forgotten his passport. You need one in Russia even for internal flights. Because we were Spartak there wasn’t a problem, but Unai shouted at the player in front of the others: “Forgetting your passport means you aren’t thinking of the team. It’s a lack of respect towards your team-mates, blah, blah, blah!”
Less than a week later, we were going to Benfica, which meant an international flight. And the only one who forgot his passport was… Unai. The whole team had to wait three hours for him to get it so that we could leave. There was a difference between what he said and what he
did, and so gradually the players lost their respect for him.
Bruno Saltor
Played for Emery at Valencia He used this whiteboard to give quite a few players a nightmare. He would ask us questions, and for some of us it was torture trying to explain different systems or even just to answer him.
Unai liked to use a laser pointer to get us to look when he was teaching something on the whiteboard. Before one of his talks, a player had taken the pointer and hidden it. Unai came into the dressing room and asked where it was because he was going to start his talk. Nobody said a word.
When he turned around, the player who had it flashed the beam onto the board. Unai whipped round to try to see who it was. In the end, 10 minutes went by, because he couldn’t discover the player, and every time he explained something on the board, the laser dot appeared. That was a great moment, because the boss could take a joke.
Cala
Played for Emery at Sevilla Unai asked us how we saw the team, how we could improve it. If you disagreed with him, you could say so, because he never took any reprisals.
It’s been different with some managers I’ve known, they would drop you if you dared say anything they didn’t like. It wasn’t like that with Unai.
He always asked us to argue, and that led to a debate: “I don’t think that would be a good solution for this, this and this. Why do you think it would be good?”
You felt you were important because he took your view into account. (© Daily Telegraph, London)