The Athletic.

So three years on from his arssel sacking and having rejected Newcastle United,

Unai Emory is heading back to the Preby League to replace Stephen Gerard at Aston Villa.

I'm Mark Chapman, this is the Athletic Football Podcast. Breaking news on Aston Villa's Twitter feed they have just announced they are delighted

to announce the appointment of Unai Emory as the club's new head coach.

I don't think that our supporters have been so excited about an appointment

since Martin O'Neill left Celtic to join them in 2006.

I think that the fact of having a failed experience in the Premier League is going to be a

bonus for him because it's all of these stuff that he has learned from the past

and he can use now.

Before thinking about the good evening jobs,

I'd say that this is like probably how you have to look at Unaimery

because that's what he's done on the pitch.

Joining me to get into Unai Emory's Premier League return, we have the athletics Aston Villa writer Greg Evans and also Paul Ballas.

Let's just start with Gerard's departure. Greg, did we see actually in his last game and the first

game without him why it had become untenable? Yes, I think so Mark. It incredible really the the transformation between just just three days

when when Astonville lost 3-0 at Fulham and then went and beat Brentford so convincingly

4-0 at home on the Sunday.

So yeah, that's the kind of performance that Villa fans have been waiting for all season

and pretty much under Gerard's reign, to be honest.

He only ever had really a couple of standout performances during the 39 games in charge.

So yeah, towards the end it felt like it was a right move to change it.

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