Being Unai Emery: Guillem Balagué on Villa’s Spanish Revolution

When journalist and author Guillem Balagué arrived in England in 1991, there were only 13 foreign players in the Premier League. Three decades later, Spanish minds are shaping its future — and none more intriguingly than Unai Emery at Aston Villa.

In this face-to-face interview recorded inside the changing rooms of Biggleswade United, the ninth-tier club where Balagué is chairman, My Old Man Said takes the conversation far beyond the touchline. From Emery’s obsession with control and structure to the Spanish influence redefining English football, Balagué opens up about a year spent shadowing Villa’s manager for his new book The Rise of the Villans.

Expect fly-on-the-wall stories from Bodymoor Heath, conversations with Emery's mum, the mystique behind Emery’s intensity, what makes Villa’s project so unique, and how football has evolved from the Cantona-Wenger era to the analytical age of Emery, Guardiola and Maresca.

For Villa fans, it’s a rare insight into the inner workings of a club on the rise. For everyone else, it’s a journey through the modern game’s cultural transformation — told by one of football’s great storytellers.

UTV

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Credits:

David Michael - @myoldmansaid

Guillem Balagué - @GuillemBalague

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Credits:

David Michael - @myoldmansaid | Chris Budd - @BUDD_music / Phillip Shaw - @prsgame

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