Emery’s passion play Arsenal manager shows his emotional side
In an interview from a new biography, Unai Emery tells Romain Molina about the philosophy which is shaping his work at Arsenal – from buying books for his players, to why he delivers such exhausting team talks
What is football for Unai Emery?
My life? [laughter] When I’m asked to define football, I always talk about emotions, the heart, love. It’s something you feel deep down inside when you enter a stadium, raise your eyes and look at the stands, the fans coming in.
I like to make a tour round the pitch before games, to look at the architecture, the colours in the stadium, the sky, to feel the atmosphere growing.
I’m a great believer in the exchange that goes on between the public and a team. Wherever I’ve been, I’ve tried to soak up the essence of the club, the town, and to transmit that to the players. I don’t think you can play football and feel nothing.
You jokingly say you were a cagon [s--t scared] as a player. Did you realise this when you were a player or afterwards?
When I was a player, all the pressures I felt created a lot of anxiety in me. I didn’t know how to manage that on my own. I think I was missing someone – a manager, no doubt – who could teach me to control my emotions.
When I said I was a cagon, I was, of course, exaggerating a little. But I really didn’t know how to manage that aspect when I was a player, and so when I became a trainer, I worked on it with my players because nobody had done so with me. I owed it to myself.
My doubts and fears helped me to learn how to manage the pressures of being a manager and my work with the players.
I got my diplomas, and when I became a coach I read a lot more about psychology, group management, pedagogy, leadership, in order to overcome all the weaknesses I had as a player.
Are there any authors who helped you in this?
At the moment I’m reading about Pep Guardiola and I’ve also got the one on Diego Simeone, but I haven’t started that yet. I also have Marcelo Bielsa’s biography and I really liked the first books that came out about Jose Mourinho, and football tactics in Portugal.
I’ve always offered my players books to read. In my first season at Valencia I bought two books for each player. However, there were 30 people in the squad, and I knew that some of them couldn’t give a damn, they weren’t really committed to the team. So, I told the players: ‘I’ve bought two books for each of you. Any of you who want them can come and get them’.
Immediately afterwards, several players turned up: ‘Boss, I’d like the books you thought of for me’. Not all the squad came, but a lot of them did. That was a moment that made me really happy.
‘My doubts and fears as a player helped me to learn how to manage the pressures of being a manager and my work with my own players’ ‘Winning mentality doesn’t mean you win all the time but work hard to try to’
For their first book, most managers choose an autobiography, but you preferred to write about psychology. Why?
When the book came out, I was in my fourth season at Valencia. We were third in La Liga, which was our objective, but down there, people want more. So, when the book was published, some in Valencia said: ‘How can he talk about a winning mentality when he hasn’t won anything?’
I told them: ‘Hombre, I have won!’ I went up to the Segunda with Lorca, and then to the Liga with Almeria. I may not have won any titles with Valencia, but we managed to come third for three consecutive years, and to qualify for the Champions League, which was our objective.
A winning mentality doesn’t mean you have to win the whole time. It means you work hard all the time to win, you think only about winning. You may or may not succeed, but it’s a mentality.
Alvaro Negredo remembers you showing images of the opposing team without saying anything, simply staring at each of your players. Then you took
one of them aside when he asked you if there was a problem.
Gary Medel! Betis v Sevilla, we were winning 3-0 and the match ended 3-3 after he was sent off. I told him: ‘The same thing happened in the team talk yesterday! You were on the defensive, and it was the same in the match. You don’t know how to control your emotions…’
I try to find something new for a team talk for each game, but
I don’t always manage it. The aim is to make the talk interesting. It was the same at Sevilla, where I would read out passages from the books I was reading; sometimes I also used to tell them more personal anecdotes.
At others, I even used to talk just about one or two players, as with Joaquin, for example. He scored two goals in the first match of the 2010-11 season against Malaga. We began the second half of the season with a game against Atletico Madrid, and he hadn’t scored another goal. Just before the match, I spoke to him in front of everyone: ‘Joaquin, you scored twice on the first day, but it’s been 20 games and you haven’t scored again. You have to get into the box and want to score!’ And he scored two goals that match.
Are you aware that some players said they were bored by your team talks?
My brother used to tell me that some players were weary of my talks at Valencia. I always told them the same thing: ‘If not everyone listens, I couldn’t give a damn because if there’s just one player listening to me 100 per cent that’s reason enough to give the talk!’
At the end of the season at Almeria in Segunda, we were travelling to Jerez for the 35th game, with promotion very close, and so I told the squad: ‘My talks are very repetitive, so today I’m not going to give you one’.
We were beaten 3-0. The captain, Jose Ortiz, asked me: ‘Boss, why didn’t you give us a talk?’ I said: ‘I’ve already given you so many I thought it might tire you today’. He said: ‘To be honest, I missed that talk, boss’.
At Almeria, my talks lasted from 30 to 45 minutes or even an hour, because the squad participated as well. I remember that once a player fell asleep. It was Kalu Uche, and I didn’t notice because I was so caught up in my talk.
Another part of your approach is to work on set-pieces. You have often said that you were inspired by a game against Albacete...
Yes, by [their coach] Cesar Ferrando. It was a game in Segunda, Leganes against Albacete, when I was still a player. They had an incredible number of routines for throw-ins, corners and free-kicks.
Our manager spent the whole time shouting at us, and I thought: ‘S---, our coach doesn’t realise they have all these moves prepared in advance, and we don’t know any of them!’
I said to him: ‘You shouldn’t be shouting, but working hard like they do, studying videos of them to see what plan we should have. What are you shouting at me for? I don’t know what to do because you haven’t told me!’
That’s the reason why I look at the other teams so much. So, if players say I use a lot of videos and talk all the time, that’s the reason! Because I lost that game against Albacete.