Unai Emery’s First Thoughts on Moussa Diaby
Aston Villa Head Coach Unai Emery got to share his thoughts on new signing Moussa Diaby with the press and Villa supporters in the USA, ahead of the club’s involvement in the Premier League’s Summer Series games. The first of which kicks-off against Newcastle United tonight at midnight, UK time in Philadelphia.
The 24-year-old winger from Bayer Leverkusen put pen to paper on his contract at the club’s Washington, DC hotel, after arriving in the USA on Saturday. Diaby will begin training with the rest of the Villa squad on Monday.
“He started training with me in the last year that I was there (PSG) and I knew him, but he didn’t play,” reflected Emery, at Villa’s first press conference of their US Tour. “He was training with us in the last two months I was there in Paris.”
After a transfer process that seemed to drag on in the final weeks of the deal-making, preventing Diaby initially flying out with the rest of the Villa team from Birmingham, Emery was evidently happy to finally get his man.
Moussa Diaby’s Role
“For us, Moussa Diaby is a player that we were following and he is helping us try to improve our level playing in the attacking third,” said Emery. “Sometimes he plays right, sometimes he plays as a number 10, sometimes as a left winger.”
“Of course, last year we were very happy with the work we did and now, this year we have to add some different goals and some different players,” added the Villa boss.
“We are very excited and we are very happy with him and really, we need to build our structure again and Moussa is giving us another step,” continued Emery.
“He is a winger or striker and his best power is his capacity to attack, dribble and run in behind, and he has experience in Europe. He is young, I think the qualities he is going to give us and playing in different positions is going to give us more power.”
“The idea is to start with us training on Monday, after the match tomorrow (against Newcastle).”
