Fuming Unai Emery says he didn't get off to the best start at Aston Villa due to being a 'substitute' for Steven Gerrard.
The ex-Arsenal boss was given the task of bringing Villa off the floor after Gerrard's run left form in tatters following just under a year in charge at Villa Park. The Liverpool legend ditched Rangers for the lure of the English Premier League after wrestling the Scottish Premiership back from Celtic and was subsequently replaced by Gio Van Bronckhorst.
But it didn't work out in the Midlands for Gerrard, with Emery's Villa side also feeling the effects of an inconsistent run, shown by an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at home in the FA Cup to English League Two side Stevenage. And the Spaniard ripped through his team but revealed what he told the group after taking up the post previously held by Gerrard.
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He said following the shock exit: “I arrived here two months ago. The first thing I told them was that I was not happy coming in as a substitute for another coach. When it is not going well, the club usually changes the coach. We have to impose again our mentality, our idea and I have that experience. But we have to do that process being very demanding.
“At the beginning - when one coach is coming - the first reaction is being excited and everybody giving all they can. But to be consistent in that way, that is difficult to keep.
“The idea is that in two or three years and I am still here, really, we can say that the process was being consistent, demanding and achieving in each moment of the target we are setting. An ambitious objective but, as well, it’s not going to be easy. I am not magical here to come here and change everything."
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