CHEEKY Unai Emery flipped the bird at football fans giving him stick in a hilarious comeback.
The former Arsenal manager failed to win over the Gunners fans with a tough 18-month spell at the Emirates.
Unai Emery lost his patience with a group of lads giving him grief[/caption]
The Spaniard flipped the bird at the trolls[/caption]
As well as struggles on the pitch, many mercilessly trolled the Spaniard for his grasp of the English language.
However, he has very much proved his worth as a manager either side of his North London nightmare by winning the Europa League four times – including with Villarreal in 2021.
Supporters lined up outside St Mary’s yesterday after the LaLiga side’s 2-1 pre-season friendly win over Southampton.
As they asked for autographs, one said: “Can you say, ‘Unai Emery, good ebening,’” in reference to the way he always started press conferences.
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Emery gave a polite smile and then one quipped: “Unai Emery I think you done very good at Arsenal.”
And the former Real Sociedad midfielder, 50, responded fantastically by sticking up his middle finger at the lads, who couldn’t believe what they saw.
To really rub it in, Emery waved the digit right in their faces, eyeballing the camera and nodding.
And fans on social media totally backed the Spaniard for his understandable reaction.
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One said: “Good on him. He isn’t your monkey to do a trick. No respect at all. I couldn’t imagine doing that to someone my age let alone someone 20 years my senior.”
Another wrote: “Tbf imagine taking the time to learn a language just to be mocked.”
A third added: “Nah I’ve not seen a middle finger put up with so much distain in a long time.”
And a final user commented: “Fair play to him disrespectful little dweebs.”
Villarreal finished seventh in LaLiga last season and enjoyed a wonderful run to the Champions League semi-finals.
The Yellow Submarine beat Juventus and Bayern Munich before falling to Liverpool.
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Arsenal technical director Edu, though, cited replacing Emery with compatriot Mikel Arteta as a major breakthrough in the club’s upward trajectory.
Edu told SunSport: “With all due respect, the project really started when we decided to change Unai.
“That was my first planning, to go to the board and explain the reason to go in a different direction. We needed to have a coach with a very clear plan and structure of how he wanted the team to play.
“We had to be really brave to change the coach in the middle of the season because a lot of internal people were telling me, ‘We’ve never done that before’.
“But if you’ve diagnosed that change is necessary, the decision has to be made quickly. It hurts but don’t postpone something that must be done.
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“Then I started to interview coaches and as soon as I went to meet Mikel at his house, I could see this guy had a plan.
“And now he’s going to make the club’s life easier because with him as coach I could give Arsenal a five-year plan.”