Unai Emery was officially unveiled as Aston Villa head coach at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
The Spaniard met members of the local and national media for the first time since taking the position.
CEO Christian Purslow and Sporting Director Johan Lange were alongside Emery as the trio answered questions from the media.
Here’s every word from the broadcast section of the press conference…
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for coming along to Villa Park today, CEO Christian Purslow is going to open up the press conference.
Christian Purslow: Welcome, everyone, and welcome to Aston Villa. On behalf of our board and in particular, our owners Wes Edens and Nassif Sawiris, I'd like to formally welcome and introduce you all to our new head coach Unai Emery. His track record speaks for itself. And his arrival is perhaps the most important moment and most important step our club has taken since our promotion from the Championship three years ago. Unai will have the personal support of our owners, in driving forward our first team and also continuing the crucial work of bringing our young talent through from our Academy, which we all believe is so fundamental to our long‑term success and to our sustainability. I would also like to formally thank Villarreal, Unai's former club, for the professional way in which they managed our approach and Unai's representatives for their constructive work in making his appointment smooth and fast. Thank you.
Reporter: Welcome to the Premier League. You've won a league title in France. You've won four Europa League titles, took Villarreal to the semi-finals of the Champions League. What are your ambitions with Aston Villa?
Unai Emery: Firstly, good afternoon, everybody. I want to thank Mr Sawiris and Mr Edens, and Christian and Johan. I am happy to be here. I decided to come here because it's a great project, and our ambition is going to be together. Step by step. And I want to improve here, and I want to help with my experiences. But we are going to think at the beginning each match and focus on Sunday against Manchester United.
Reporter: What did you learn from your first time around in the Premier League?
Unai Emery: I learned a lot, and overall, each team, they gave us some experiences playing against them when I was at Arsenal, and I led as well playing in Europe 15 years in a row, playing against a lot of English teams. As a coach, I am now 51 years old and in my experiences I coached in Spain, in France, in the Premier League and I've played against a lot of teams in the world, and the English teams for me is a big challenge, I came to play against them because I think now the Premier League is maybe the first (No.1) league in the world.
Reporter: Christian, you're CEO of an ambitious club. What makes Unai the right man to take this club forward?
Christian Purslow: Well, as I said, Unai's track record across a number of top leagues, some hugely important clubs in European football, as a serial winner of trophies, that track record speaks for itself and that is the profile that we are absolutely proud and delighted to have in the manager of Aston Villa.
Reporter: You've enjoyed some incredible European results in your career. Villa are 16th now but the league is very tight. So, is a European spot realistic this season?
Unai Emery: My dream is to win a trophy with Aston Villa, it’s my personal challenge at the beginning. And my second dream, my objective could be to play with Aston Villa in Europe. But now we have to start thinking only the next match because we are not in a good position in the table now, and each match is going to give us a lot of information from the players and I want to test, I want to check individually and collectively, the players and next match is my only focus now, Sunday against Manchester United, and, of course, playing here at home.
Reporter: You had a leadership group of five people at Arsenal with Laurent Koscielny as captain. Who will be your captain here and will you have a similar group?
Unai Emery: Now we are not going to change the work they had here with the time (we have). I want to check, I want to test, I want to know the team, to know the players, and then I am going to decide. But not now.
Reporter: Johan, if I could ask you, how excited are you personally to be working with such a top coach?
Johan Lange: Everybody at Aston Villa is extremely excited that Unai has joined our club. On a personal level, I will be very much looking forward to working very closely with Uni on a day-to-day basis. As Christian mentioned before, his career speaks for himself, over 500 matches in the top five leagues or 150 matches in European competitions but crucially, throughout his career, Unai has also taken teams and clubs very similar to Aston Villa and over time, step by step, taken them into a much better place. So yes, it’s an extremely exciting day for the whole football club.
Reporter: Unai, firstly, welcome to the city of Birmingham, glad to have you here. What can the players expect from your management style?
Unai Emery: I think our players now, they are underperforming, and my idea first is to try to help them. To have possibilities to improve, but at the beginning it's gaining confidence, trust in each player and to play together and create a good atmosphere inside, and to show everybody our best wishes (ambitions) to improve and to help the team.
Reporter: Christian, you mentioned how important the appointment is, probably the biggest since promotion. Do you feel any pressure that this appointment has to be successful?
Christian Purslow: There's always pressure in the Premier League. We relish it. It is the most competitive league in the world, and we are thrilled, therefore, to have a manager join us with such a track record at this crucial time in our evolution that will help everybody at the football club in our mission to make this club continually get better and to try and achieve our long-term ambitions. So, I say again, we’re so pleased to have you here Unai.
Reporter: Unai, welcome to Birmingham. You’ve signed a long-term contract, how important is it for people not to expect dramatic overnight improvement but to be patient with you and the team?
Unai Emery: I want to create a new way and obviously we need time. But in football, time isn’t as much and we have to get three points in front of us. I want to be here for a long time and each step ahead thinking to improve. With our dreams, my dream, my ambitions, the club, they gave me the same idea that I have – be ambitious and to improve as soon as possible and to think of each step to be stronger.
Reporter: A quick question on language skills – I saw that you once learnt, in part, to speak English through watching Peaky Blinders, I wondered if that’s helped you understand the accent?
Unai Emery: It’s so difficult! I’m ambitious as well, and it’s a difficult series to try and improve the language. I think, really, I can understand better the Birmingham history through this.
Thank you very much everyone, that concludes the broadcast section.
