Wilshere1010
Active Member
I find the PSG criticism quite harsh also. He's been criticised for losing the title to a very good Monaco side who got 95 points, but they were just excellent that year and it shouldn't taint Emery's rep. Poch is a very good coach (but a bottler) who lost the title to a Leicester side much weaker than Monaco on paper, yet his reputation is still intact.Emery got Almeria promoted to La liga for the first time ever and then finished 8th in the following season, massive achievement.. He went to Valencia who were in deep financial problems at the time and in his second season there he managed to get them back in Cl with a 3rd place finish.. He ends up losing Villa and Silva(maybe others too, I can't recall) yet still finishes 3rd the next season even after losing his best players. He finishes 3rd 3 years in a row under serious financial restrictions and dealing with losing his best players. After he left Valencia has struggled(got 4th this year though).
What he did in Russia is irrelevant really.. Winning 3 Europa leagues with Sevilla is nothing to downplay, to come back from down 1-0 at half time to Klopp's Liverpool in the final is especially impressive. All his previous work made him attractive enough for PSG to want him(and if we were linked with him back then majority here would be all for it). Things didn't go the way he would have wanted there, but it's a tough job. Who's to say he hasn't learned from it and become a better manager because of that experience?
Lost this year to a Madrid side that has won 3 UCL's in the last 4 and ALWAYS seems to find a way to win in Europe, no matter the opposition. Freak side. The Barca bottle job is worrying, but it shouldn't be forgotten he was up against a combination of one of the best attacks of all time and the full force of UEFAlona.
Outside of that, his record is solid, his Almeria and Valencia spells particularly impressive to me. Even the 7th place finish in the league came as a result of him focusing his efforts on the Europa League and probably slipping a position or 2 because of that.