Raul Sanllehi: Unai Emery Made It Clear He Wanted To Win The Europa League Again

Raul Sanllehi reveals the Europa League was always Unai Emery’s priority…

Arsenal’s head of football Raul Sanllehi sat down alongside managing director Vinai Venkatesham on Arsenal Player to give their review of the campaign.

This despite the fact that our biggest game of the season is yet to be played as we head to Baku for the Europa League final later this month.

Not only is it our only chance of salvaging silverware this term, but it’s also a direct route into next season’s Champions League group stage and would give the club an enormous boost in the transfer market.

The Europa League is a competition very familiar to Unai Emery with the Spaniard on course to lift the trophy for the fourth time.

And, after being given the job last May, Sanllehi reveals Emery constantly made reference to the competition as a serious route and one he wanted to win again.

It’s often difficult to maintain a solid league campaign while attempting to win the Europa League, and Emery’s eggs are now fully in this basket.

“I’d like also to mention on this that the Europa League is probably one of Unai’s preferred areas and comfort zones!” Sanllehi said.

“He’s won it three times already, he’s never lost a final, and we’re hoping that that streak continues.

“From day one, when we were talking with him, he was already talking about this season when we were talking about the objective to qualify for the Champions League, and he would always mention the Europa League in our objectives. He was very clear – he wanted this title.”

Given that we ended the campaign in a whimper, Emery needs to bring home the trophy to save this season from being an abject failure.