Manchester United’s ‘Dream’ Manager Target Is Unai Emery — Sitting 18 Places Above Them in Europe

Unai Emery is the “dream candidate” at the top of INEOS‘s six-man shortlist to replace Michael Carrick at Manchester United, according to the i Paper. The other names on the list are Eddie Howe, Fabian Hürzeler, Antonio Conte, Kieran McKenna and Julian Nagelsmann.

The arithmetic is awkward. Villa are second in the 36-team Champions League table with nine points from three matches. United are twentieth in the same table with three. Domestically they are a point apart: Villa twelfth on eight, United thirteenth on seven. In Europe there are eighteen places between them.

What the hierarchy is said to admire is the rebuild. Per the report, United’s decision-makers noted how Emery was forced to rip up and rebuild his squad in a summer spent wrangling financial fair play regulations. Sources close to the manager say he is absolutely committed to Villa, where he holds huge power and influence.

The record is the argument. Four years on from his first game, a 3-1 win over United in November 2022, Emery has delivered two fourth-place finishes and a Champions League quarter-final. In May came the Europa League: a 3-0 final win over Freiburg in Istanbul, his fifth win in the competition, more than any manager in history. Wednesday’s 3-1 over Viking made it three wins from three in Europe this season, twelve scored and five conceded, and a twelfth straight European home win, the joint-longest run by an English side this century.

Villa’s latest three points came through Ross Barkley’s 23rd-minute header from Ibrahim Mbaye’s corner, Emiliano Buendia’s penalty twelve minutes later after a VAR review caught Zlatko Tripić’s foul on Alysson, and a third just after the hour when Henrik Heggheim turned Alysson’s cross into his own net. Peter Christiansen’s 84th-minute volley stood after an offside check and cost Villa first place. They sit second behind PSG.

Emery was frank about the split afterwards. “In the Premier League we are still not winning but in Champions League league winning two good matches against Fenerbahce and today and now can feel confident and comfortable for the next challenges.” He made a point of praising Alejandro Garnacho’s 20 minutes off the bench: “his best minutes with us.” Buendia singled out Alysson: “He was incredible, he showed his potential, his ability on the wing.”

United’s numbers face the other way. Winless in seven — the longest such run since December 2015. Thirteenth in the league on seven points, the club’s worst start in forty years. Three European points: a 4-0 win over Sabah, then defeats to Atlético Madrid and a 4-1 humbling at Como. Out of the Carabao Cup.

Bruno Fernandes said it out loud after Como. “Everyone at the club must understand that it’s not the same thing any more. We’re not in the past, and we need to look at the future. I think at this club, we focus too much on looking at what the club was in the past, what the club did in the past, but we are no longer the same.” On trophies at United now: “It’s been very difficult at this club in the last few years.”

The link has lit up the fan channels. Mark Douglas, the i Paper’s man on the story, put it on X this morning: Emery “would be one of #mufc’s ‘dream’ candidates… Carrick hanging by a thread.” Under SPORF’s shortlist graphic on Facebook, one fan kept it to five words: “Unai Emery is the right man.” Another, tired: “Literally the same time of the year every season this post comes up.”

Saturday’s test is league leaders Manchester City at Villa Park: seven wins from seven, with Erling Haaland fit. Then Barcelona away on November 3. Then, on November 8, Old Trafford: Manchester United against Aston Villa. Carrick is expected to still be in the home dugout for Sunday’s match against Bournemouth.