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Oil State reportedly after the services of Unai Emery

Valencia CF v Villarreal CF - LaLiga Santander Photo by Eric Alonso/Getty Images

Let’s be honest, we kind of have an Unai Emery conundrum on our hands. The man won us the Europa League, and for that we will be eternally grateful, however, we are one or two bad results from being in a relegation battle in La Liga and we have all been part of that nightmare before. Turns out, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia may be offering us a way out.

Apparently, the goal of the Saudi Royal family is to win themselves a Europa League. Given the fact that Newcastle has won jack diddly squat since anyone who uses the internet on a regular basis was born, you can see how that would be a starting point.

Joking aside, I really am not sure this rumor makes much sense to me, but Newcastle actually paying a fee to take Unai Emery off our hands might be the best possible solution for both Villarreal and the manager right now. This squad is immensely talented, but its best players are meant to play fast and the pace in Emery’s scheme is glacial. Things just are not working.

Joking even further aside, Emery’s first task at Newcastle might actually be to get them back to the Premier League. They are currently sitting on four points out of ten matches, six points from safety. Even with massive investment in the January window, remaining in the top division is going to be immensely difficult. If the Saudis really are looking at Emery, I applaud them for some out of the box thinking. He sets his teams up really well structurally and runs a discipline scheme, the exact sort of thing needed to fend off more talented sides, but there may not even be enough talent on this roster for anything to work.

It may not actually happen, but what do you think? How would you feel if Newcastle bought our manager?