Unai Emery: 'If we can give The Prince of Wales good news, good results, good moments in football, we are proud of it'

The funny thing about football is that ‘it’s only a game’ to everyone except the people who play it or watch it. It’s a game that compels the average fan to sacrifice their emotional stability on a weekly basis at the altar of the terraces. Meanwhile, players and managers work in an industry where their words and actions are scrutinised more severely than most Prime Ministers. When you make a mistake at work, do 45,000 people sing a song to the tune of Clair de Lune outlining your incompetence? Football is only a game, until it isn’t.

Thankfully, for Unai Emery, a career managing football has seen more success than failure. He has won the UEFA Europa League a record five times, including with Aston Villa last season, and also won the domestic treble in France in 2017, as manager of Paris Saint-Germain. In his four years as manager of Aston Villa, he has qualified for Champions League football twice, a remarkable achievement for a club that was in the second division as recently as 2019.

Such success will have delighted many in Birmingham and at least one man in Windsor. That would be The Prince of Wales, Aston Villa superfan and future King. ‘During the transfer window, he’s asking about the team every day,’ Unai reveals in the boardroom at Bodymoor Heath, Aston Villa’s training ground. ‘“How is the team? How are you? How are we going to play some players? How are we going to do?” He is always so close to us and we appreciate it so, so much.’ Plenty of managers feel pressure: from fans, from owners, even from their own players. In the case of Unai, he can add a Prince to that list.

Like that Prince, Unai is a man with plenty to think about. ‘I am so responsible here for the deal I have with Aston Villa: with the history, with the supporters, with the owners, with the players, with the workers,’ he says. ‘Every day, I must make decisions — very important decisions for this club — because I am responsible.

‘We are living every day on the limit,’ he continues, ‘because we know that to win or to lose, the line is so tight. The only way to be consistent in football is winning, but how can we win? By preparing, by working hard every day and trying to update ourselves in football. Football is in constant evolution and you must update every day, every week, every month, every year and try to be consistent — watching everything and analysing everything. At the end, if you are not winning, you will die. I know football is to win, to win, to win.’

Walking through the halls of Bodymoor Heath, he is referred to sometimes as Unai—but more often, it is simply ‘the boss’. It’s not hard to see why he is so respected as a leader. His dark hair is slicked back and his eyes carry an intensity of focus. You are acutely aware that he is always focused and always listening. He rarely breaks eye contact and the gears of his mind are always turning. It is not an easy task to command the confidence of a group of men who, by the time they are 25 years old, will have earned enough money to retire in some comfort. To be a leader in top-flight football is more than drawing Xs and Os on a whiteboard.

‘Example, example, everything I am doing is an example,’ he says, when asked how he does it. ‘I feel football as a passion and I really feel my job is something I love. Showing it, the players must follow more or less my example and the direction: to feel passion, to feel enthusiasm, to spend hours practising or to spend hours preparing for games.

‘But also to separate the relationship with them. One is professional: “This is your task. You must focus on this task, individually and collectively.” Then, try to understand each one as a person, as a man. They are from different countries, different cultures and it’s very important to understand them as well. This is important: to try to know them. As a person, I must identify the differences in cultures and education and try to adapt them to us.’

Unai is naturally curious. He admits that, outside of football, he spends most of his time back in his native Spain, where his family and friends still live. However, if he’s not working and in the UK, he likes to walk. Is he tackling the grand vistas of the Black Country or the Peak District? No. ‘I am walking in the city centre, the canals, in disguise with the baseball cap and sunglasses,’ he says. ‘Walking, walking, walking. I like to watch the people. I am living in the city centre because I like to be where I can walk with the people around me. I am so, so curious about the people who we are living around, how they are doing their life, and I like it.’

Yet Unai doesn’t really spend time outside football. He has known the game all his life. He’s from the Basque Country, born in Hondarribia, and his father, Juan, and grandfather, Antonio, were both footballers. He represented Real Sociedad as a midfielder in the Spanish top division, but spent most of his career in the second division for Toledo, Racing Ferrol, Leganés and Lorca Deportiva. It was as a youngster at Real Sociedad that he was managed by renowned Welsh striker John Toshack. ‘I remember him as a leader with authority. Huge authority, huge respect. How he was managing the development of the young players had an impact on me. He was the first one.’

Further inspiration was found in Luis Aragonés, who, as a manager, guided Spain to their first international trophy since 1964, when they defeated Germany in the final of Euro 2008. ‘He was an example for coaches in Spain,’ says Unai. ‘I followed him because he was the first coach, more or less, at the highest level who was doing what I wanted to do.’ Unai followed a similar path, earning his coaching badges as he played, so that, when his career finished due to an injury at 32, he stepped straight into management without skipping a beat.

There must be something in the water in northern Spain, because it can’t be coincidence that the Premier League currently has four Basque managers, in Unai Xabi Alonso (Chelsea), Andoni Iraola (Liverpool) and Mikel Arteta (Arsenal), who moved from playing football to managing it. ‘Our Basque Country is four million. We are a few people, but we have our culture, we have our language and we try to keep it.’ For reference, the greater metropolitan area of Birmingham has a population of about 4.3 million.

What advice he would give a younger version of himself? ‘Keep being humble, but keep being confident,’ he says. ‘Try not to let people, if you are arrogant, blame you and don’t let people, if you are humble, push you. And then my advice is my father’s heritage to me: responsibility. Responsibility is to respond to your task, or the deal you have, or the commitment you have with your job or with the people behind you. This is my advice to me: responsible, humble, confident — and every day, respect.’

Unai respects not only his colleagues, his players and his fans, but also the game itself. He is one of the few managers in the Premier League who still wears a shirt and tie on match days, which he says is all to do with respect. ‘I started as a manager with the suit. The usual dress for the manager was a suit.’ He does, however, admit that the English weather makes it difficult to wear one all the time. ‘It’s raining so much and it’s cold, you are completely wet, and the shoes, with the bubbles of mud. It’s difficult.’ He tries to find a balance between formality and comfort, but is adamant that formality and respect are more important than comfort. ‘This year, I am going completely black,’ he says with a big smile. ‘Black tie and the white shirt, and I am feeling comfortable with that.’

One person who could probably help him out with a decent tailor, should he ever need it, is The Prince of Wales. Unai (and, indeed, everyone else we speak to at the club) makes it clear that when it comes to supporting the Villans, The Prince is no plastic fan. ‘When he’s with us, he’s a fantastic guy. We’ve had lunch together, he’s watched training sessions, we share conversations, everything about football.’ Indeed, inside the walls of Villa Park or Bodymoor Heath, William is barely even a prince. ‘He shows his humble personality with us — I can’t forget it. For me, it seems unbelievable,’ Unai says.

‘He’s our boss, but he’s always trying to be at our level, respecting so much everything we are doing here. If he’s sitting with us to have lunch, he asks: “Where am I sitting?” Wherever you want! It’s fantastic.’ In fact, when he’s watching a game, he’s as enthusiastic as every other fan in the ground and as likely to throw his arms in the air when a last-minute winning goal is scored, a sight Unai admits he enjoys. ‘We are scoring, he is celebrating, it is fantastic for us. If we can give him good news, good results, good moments in football, we are proud of it.’

Where would Prince William fit in on the football pitch? ‘It’s a good question,’ says Mr Emery. ‘Midfielder. A general. Good brain, good positioning and running. Number eight.’ He laughs. ‘He’s tall!’