Gary Neville shares what people he worked with at Valencia told him about new Aston Villa boss Unai Emery

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Gary Neville says he has heard rave reviews from La Liga outfit Valencia about new Aston Villa manager Unai Emery.

Emery took over from Steven Gerrard at the start of the month and got off to a flying start by beating Manchester United 3-1 on Sunday.

Neville used to manage Valencia and he said on the Overlap that people who worked with Emery said that he was incredibly good at what he does.

Neville on Emery

Neville said: “That’s a great appointment.

“(Jamie Carragher) will know how I spoke about him. I was in Valencia for four months and there were a lot of people at Valencia who worked with Unai Emery who told me he was the absolute best.

“He was brilliant. Obviously his record, even what he did last season at Villarreal, what he’s done with Sevilla.

“He punches well above his weight, gets the best out of underdogs.

“He loved the idea of being the underdog. The fact that he is a big manager at Villa now, I think he’s an elite manager.”

Emery has made an instant impact and will hope to get his imprint on a Villa squad which has been expensively assembled but lacks identity.

He has another game against United to come tomorrow night, so it has been a tough start on paper for the Spaniard.

But he has the opportunity to stun the Red Devils again, this time at Old Trafford in the EFL Cup in Emery’s second game in charge.