Former Newcastle United forward Michael Bridges has claimed that Unai Emery is ‘replicating’ Eddie Howe’s success with the Magpies at Aston Villa.
While Newcastle are battling for Champions League under Howe, Emery has taken over a Steven Gerrard side who were lingering somewhere between relegation and mid-table and has elevated them into the European spots.
As we saw over the weekend, Emery got the better of Howe in a 3-0 victory and his side put in arguably the best performance that a Newcastle team has had to deal with this season. It was their biggest margin of defeat so far and they were truly outclassed on Saturday afternoon.
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As Bridges suggested, Emery came into a team low on confidence and producing some poor performances and has managed to completely transform the side without several new additions. Like Howe did with Joelinton, Fabian Schar and Sean Longstaff, Emery is now doing at Villa.
“He’s kind of replicating what Eddie Howe has done at Newcastle with the same set of player as what Steve Bruce had, Unai Emery’s done the same with Steven Gerrard,” Bridges told the Gegenpod.
“It goes to show how good of a job and how high class these managers are – Emery was a serial winner with Sevilla when they won the Europa League so many times. He’s got pedigree.
“What he’s done is give them a whole new dimension and you’ve got to credit that. It’s harsh for Gerrard but when you look at his success with Rangers, coming to the Premier League is a completely different concept.
“Emery had a taste of it at Arsenal, I think he did a good job and when he’s been at Sevilla, he’s done wonderful things so that shows the pedigree of manager and this has just emulated him to a whole new level because of what he’s achieved this season, I think it’s fantastic.”
Both managers had been linked to the vacant Newcastle post after the sacking of Steve Bruce back in 2021. Emery was viewed as the new ownership’s number one option but after he turned them down, they moved on to the ex-Bournemouth man.
That decision has so far proved to be a huge success, but that’s not to say Emery wouldn’t have enjoyed a similar upturn in form as he is currently proving to be a top Premier League manager in Birmingham.
With a summer window coming up in which you would expect the owners of Aston Villa to back the Spaniard, it will be interesting to see just how far he can take this side and especially how far they can go in Europe should they qualify given his outstanding record in the competition.
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