Gary Neville has claimed former Arsenal boss Unai Emery is an "elite manager", years after highlighting how the Gunners let him down before he was sacked from his post at the Emirates.
Emery has since returned to the English game just shy of three years after he was relieved of his duties as Arsenal manager to take charge of Midlands-based outfit Aston Villa. He has been at the helm for two games after his appointment, both coming against Manchester United, with one Premier League win and one defeat in the Carabao Cup to show for his efforts.
Everyone at Villa Park will be hoping he fares better in their hot seat than he did in north London, and the early signs are promising for the Spaniard.
Neville is clearly an admirer of Emery, as shown by his recent comments on The Overlap. The former Manchester United defender explained: "I was in Valencia for four months and there were a lot of people who worked with Unai Emery who said he was the absolute best."
The Old Trafford fan favourite went on to explain why things didn't work out with the Gunners, adding: "I think at Arsenal - timing, the situation maybe just wasn't quite right for him, it wasn't right for the club and there was a lot of expectation at Arsenal."
Pressed for comment on whether he can be placed among the highest rank of coaches, Neville admitted: "I think he is an elite manager."
HAVE YOUR SAY! Is Unai Emery an elite manager? Comment below.
His support of Emery isn't anything new. At the time of his sacking at Arsenal, Neville was one of the first to leap to the Spaniard's defence. The pundit berated the recruitment policy at the Emirates during Emery's reign and insisted that was a factor in his demise.
"I don't know who's been responsible for recruitment over the last two or three years, they've chopped and changed, there have been new people brought in," Neville wrote for Sky Sports.
"But if I was in the boardroom at Arsenal I'd be giving them a right rocket. There's no way Emery is telling David Luiz to step up two or three times, there's hideous things you see from the other defenders and midfielders."
How things have changed at Arsenal since Emery's departure, with his successor Mikel Arteta guiding the Gunners to the top of the Premier League thanks to some undeniably shrewd recruitment.
Over the course of the last two summer transfer windows, Arteta has almost entirely changed the Arsenal squad, with the first team looking drastically different to the one Emery left. In fact, just four of the 18 players named in the matchday squad for the 2-1 home defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt that saw Emery sacked are still playing at the club.
It will forever remain unclear whether Emery could have achieved something similar to Arteta had he been given the same freedom in the transfer market.
