Unai Emery banishes bitter memories to lead Villarreal to unexpected glory

It’s 9:30 a.m., and I’m about to interview what is certain to be a beaming Unai Emery.

It’s May 2015, and the then 44-year-old Spanish coach had just led Sevilla to a second successive Europa League triumph after beating Ukrainian side FC Dnipro in Warsaw.

At Sevilla’s training ground, the ambitious coach, about to head off on a well earned summer holiday, spoke generously and confidently about his ability to improve the club, what it would require and what he demands from players.

Having previously managed Almeria, Valencia and Spartak Moscow, Emery had no desire to coach another team, and the sparkle in his eyes showed a man who believed an even better future awaited Sevilla. He was happy being the right man at the right time in Andalusia.

Despite his success, it would have been hard to imagine at the time that, seven years on, he would find himself eyeing a UEFA Champions League final while the likes of Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and his former club enviously watched from the sidelines.

In hindsight, that he would become one of Europe’s most in-demand coaches was inevitable.

A year after our interview, he were celebrating an unprecedented hat-trick of Europa League wins, after defeating Liverpool 3-1 in Basel.

In 2016 he joined Paris Saint-Germain, the latest manager tasked with winning the coveted Champions League.

Not only did that dream not materialize, but Emery presided over one of the most notorious collapses in European football history in his first season. Having beaten Barcelona 4-0 at home in the round of 16 of the Champions League, the French team suffered a meltdown at Camp Nou, losing 6-1 in the most embarrassing of eliminations.

From that moment he was on borrowed on time in Paris, and despite