Unai Emery extended a 'warm welcome' to Newcastle United's owners before the Aston Villa boss came up against the side he turned down on Saturday.
Newcastle's hierarchy initially plumped for Emery ahead of Howe because of the Spaniard's track record after the pair were interviewed for the manager's job following Steve Bruce's exit in 2021. However, Emery, who was managing Villarreal at the time, was spooked by the news leaking out on the day of the Yellow Submarines' crucial Champions League game against Young Boys and had second thoughts.
The deal had been so advanced that Simon Smith previously revealed to ChronicleLive that 'people were telling me that it was going to be Unai Emery', leaving the club's former head of goalkeeping 'sitting at home waiting to be sacked' because he expected the 51-year-old to bring in his own man. However, Newcastle ended up appointing Howe instead after Emery rejected the Magpies.
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Ahead of facing Emery on Saturday, Howe admitted he was 'very thankful' that he said no and the Newcastle boss has since overseen a remarkable turnaround, taking a winless team in 19th place to third in the table in the space of less than 18 months. Emery has also gone on to impress at Villa and his side thumped Newcastle 3-0 on Saturday to win five straight Premier League games for the first time since 1998.
There is clearly a lot of respect between both managers and as well as welcoming Howe and his staff to Villa Park, Emery made a point of mentioning the club's 'directors' in his programme notes, with part-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi both in attendance at Villa Park.
"An impressive team that fully deserve their current position in the table," the Villa boss wrote of Newcastle. "I would like to give a warm welcome to Eddie Howe, his players and his staff and directors who are here with us this afternoon."
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