BOY OH BOY!! Arsenal manager Unai Emery has recently revealed that he recommended Mauricio Pochettino to Valencia when he left the club back in 2012.
Unai Emery managed Valencia for four years before leaving Spain for Spartak Moscow (where he would not last more than six months) but was keen to leave the Spanish outfit in a healthy state.
Unai Emery is known for his precise research of opponents and intense style of training for preparation and was left highly impressed with Mauricio Pochettino, who was yet in charge of Espanyol at the time.
Although Emery told Valencia’s president to appoint Pochettino as his replacement – but the Argentine soon took over at Southampton following January. And call it a Coincident, but another of gaffer who served the Saints, Mauricio Pellegrino, succeeded Emery at Valencia.
Emery was talking to Marca, and was asked ‘if he enjoys analyzing games’:
‘I love it. When I left Valencia, I told the president that I was more of a coach analyst than a player analyst.
‘I do not have time to analyse players. I am more tactical. Wenger was, for example, more of about watching pure football, more about the player.
‘And those days, when Valencia were looking for a coach, I told the president [Manuel Llorente] that, for me, my ideal successor was Mauricio Pochettino, who was at Espanyol.
‘Because I analysed a lot of for all the teams. And one day, some time later, Poch called me to thank me.
‘I did it without knowing him, but I knew his Espanyol well. That’s why I analyse teams more than players.’
READ: Juan Mata reveals Unai Emery’s tactics
Asked weather he was a ‘meticulous’ coach, Emery said: ‘I find it funny every time people say that.
‘Once a Chinese coach came to see us at Sevilla and he repeatedly said to me: “Unai, your work on the details has impressed me”. And it stuck with me. I said to myself: ‘Well that’s a positive!’
‘But it can also be negative, you might say, a bit tiresome, wanting to influence the players too much, so I don’t know. What I do is work hard. I look at the 90 minutes and analyse openings, where the space is etc. Then I transfer that to video and show the players.’
READ: Lucas Torreira: The man who could defy Unai Emery’s era at Arsenal
