Transfers

Valencia sales: Albiol (£14), David Villa (£36m), David Silva (£26m), Juan Mata (£24m)

Valencia purchases: Renan (£4.5m), Moya (£4.5m), Soldado (£9m)

For his first two seasons at Valencia Emery was limited in his purchasing to just Renan and Moya. He was already working with a team that had Silva, Mata, Banega, and David Villa but the fact is clear that he was given an extremely limited transfer budget. Valencia sold off most of their top talent while Emery was there but he still managed three consecutive 3rd place finishes in la Liga. Net spend at Valencia: (£65m profit)

Sevilla sales: Negredo, Navas, and Kondogbia in his first full summer (£58m combined), Moreno and Rakitic in his second season (£37m combined), Carlos Bacca and Aleix Vidal in his final season (£43m).

Sevilla purchases: Bacca and Gamiero turned out to be crucial in his first season at Sevilla. They got them for a combined £15m and Sevilla sold them later for a combined £54m. He also brought Ever Banega in from Valencia for dirt cheap (£2m) and is notable for purchasing Nzonzi and Krychowiak for a combined £12m and selling Krychowiak to his next club for £27m. Net spend at Sevilla: (£87m profit)

PSG Purchases: Neymar (£200m), Draxler (£36m), Guedes (£27m), Krychowiak (£27m), Jese (£23m).

PSG Sales: David Luiz to Chelsea for £31m, Moura and Aurier went to Sp*rs for £50m (combined), and Blaise Matuidi went to Juve for £19m.

His time at PSG was marred by several big money flops. Guedes, Krychowiak, and Jese have all been loaned out with the latter two relegated from the Premier League with West Brom and Stoke respectively. Net spend at PSG: £200m

When Gazidis heard Emery had dossiers on all the Arsenal players with specifics about how to improve them, his eyes must have lit up with dollar signs. Unai’s record as a coach is one of improving players.

One thing that Arsenal supporters should be happy about is that Emery almost always plays with an outright defensive midfielder and has a history of purchasing DMs. He even took Lass Diarra on a free last season at PSG.

Club League Record

At PSG he was the first Spanish manager to win Ligue Un and achieved career highs of 2.37 ppg and 74% win percentage. His 2.37 points per game and 74% win rate are also the highest ever by a PSG manager.

I included Arsenal’s last season under Arsene Wenger in my chart to illustrate how far off the pace Arsenal were last season. We earned the same points per game last season as Emery did while he was at Sevilla.

That’s quite a low bar for Arsenal, however, as over the last 21 seasons Arsene Wenger has averaged 1.97 points per game. I’m comparing apples for apples here: the above graphic is Emery’s league points only and Wenger’s 1.97 points per game is Premier League only also.

This just shows the enormity of the task ahead for Emery: he has to perform like PSG but on a budget somewhere between what he spent at PSG and what he earned at Sevilla and Valencia combined. That is to say, he has to basically break even.

Emery’s record in the Europa League is also outstanding and as a result he won the competition three times:

However, when he comes up against top clubs, Emery’s record isn’t so good:

This is all competitions (leagues, cups, and European) and of course he was severely hamstrung at Sevilla and Valencia with those clubs selling off their top players every season. Still, he’s won just 16.5% of his matches against top clubs which is a record he will be keen to overcome.

Emery also has a poor record against top managers:

Most of his losses were incurred while at Sevilla or Valencia and his record is often defended by pointing out the massive gulf in resources available to Emery versus Mourinho, Enrique, and Guardiola.

I also looked at his record against other top clubs during his tenure at PSG. Here I looked at Monaco, Marseille, and Lyon, plus his more testing matches in the Champions League against Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern, and Real Madrid.

His record at PSG against other top teams is P26 W15 D5 L6 (58% win rate). He’s also scored 63 for allowed 33 against and averaged a very impressive 1.92 PPG against those opponents.

That record is heavily weighted in favor of his home field advantage. At home against big clubs he’s won 10, drawn 3 an lost just 1. He’s also scored 39 and conceded just 7 goals. That’s against the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern, and Arsenal. That’s also a 71% win rate which is quite impressive.

Away, however, his team struggles. The record is W4 D2 L5. That’s a 36% win rate and the goals for is 22 and against is 25.

10 trophies

Emery has won 10 trophies in his career: 3 at Sevilla (UEFA CUP) and 7 at PSG, including his only league title.

@7amkickoff

Sources: Transfermarkt.co.uk, Opta

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