In La Liga’s fastest-moving story Villarreal boss Unai Emery has announced his decision to leave the Yellow Submarine and take the vacancy at Premier League club Aston Villa.
The announcement comes as Villarreal are striving to stay in touch with the La Liga front runners after a patchy start. They are quite handily placed in seventh, a point behind the Europa places and four behind Real Sociedad in fourth. So this is not ideal timing for the La Liga side, but time is of the essence for Aston Villa whose owners are fiercely ambitious and have just potted former boss Steven Gerrard.
The ex-Liverpool star was shown the door last Thursday and the Villains responded with a 4-0 thrashing of Brentford, a result which lifted them to 15th position in the Premier League.
I wonder what Gerrard thought of that!
A relegation battle is a new kind of challenge for Emery and he, as well and the Villa fans, will hope it is a short-lived struggle and he can guide the team up to its expected mid-table position and beyond. But his recent managerial experiences have been at Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain and Villarreal, and before that he managed Arsenal in the English league.
Emery struggled to make his mark at the Emirates where the odds were stacked against him to be fair, taking over from the legendary Arsene Wenger and at a time when Manchester City and Liverpool were on the rapid rise. He missed out on a top-four spot and lost the Europa League final to Chelsea, and was sacked within 18 months.
Yellow Submarine fans may not agree with me at this moment but Emery is a man of principle, famously turning down the Newcastle United job after the club’s Saudi takeover and he will have considerably less to spend at Villa Park. And he will be fondly remembered at Villarreal as the man who led the side to Europa League glory with a final win over Manchester United, and then made the semi-final of the 2022 Champions League thanks to a string of spectacular results, including victories over Juventus and FC Bayern.
The frontrunner to replace Emery in Valencia is former Barcelona coach Quique Setien, who the club have identified as their prime target and, if Setien can agree to terms, there could be an announcement within a week.
Villarreal have been hit by a bombshell and need to move on.
El Clasico Pair look to strengthen
While the race for European places took an unexpected twist at Villarreal the top two battle looks set to rage on with Real Madrid and Barcelona both desperate to win the big domestic prize. As ever, 2021 La Liga winners Atletic are in the near view mirror but the latest La Liga 2022 betting odds make this a battle between Los Blancos and the Blaugrana with Los Roji blancos at odds of around 30.00 to gatecrash the party again.
Real Madrid have opened up a three-point gap at the top of the table following a dramatic El Clasico win and they have nudged ahead as favourites, and boss Carlo Ancelotti is reported to be making a move to keep Marco Asensio at the club. The attacking midfielder has been at the Santiago Bernabeu since 2016, making 246 appearances and the club wants to tie him down to a new deal.
In other La Liga 2022 news,the Blaugrana are set to offer their highly rated left back Alejandro Balde a new deal following an impressive start for the 19-year-old this season. Balde has made 11 appearances and has shown defensive steel while also making three assists, and his performances are keeping the legendary Jordi Alba at bay.
Xavi has some outstanding young players at the club, with Gavi, Pedro, Ansu Fati and Balde all promising a stellar future. But he needs to continue to strengthen for the current campaign, and he has received a blow in that his pursuit of Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez might well come to nothing after the 25-year-old Argentine hitman pledged his future to Inter Milan; well at least he has said he has no intention to move.
Barca may come back to that one, but in the meantime Xavi has been delighted by the form of Ousmane Dembele who is playing alongside Robert Lewandowski up front. The France striker was unsettled last year and looking for a move but he is back to his best at the Camp Nou. His brilliant performances in the second half of last season led to him signing a new deal and he looks happier than ever, with four goals and seven assists.
The one dark note at Barcelona is that their Champions League campaign is hanging by a thread and the visit of FC Bayern on Wednesday night may well see them drop into the Europa League.
We’ll be all over that story as it happens, here at SBOTOP, before it’s back to La Liga matter next weekend…without Unai Emery.
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