Unai Emery Rejects Newcastle

Unai Emery has dramatically rejected the chance to take over at Newcastle and has confirmed he is ‘100% committed’ to staying at Villarreal.

With Newcastle chiefs scrambling to find out if Emery was interested in replacing Steve Bruce on Wednesday, the 50-year-old clarified his position with a statement in the afternoon.

“No matter how much noise there was yesterday in another country, within the club there was transparency and loyalty with the Roig family and with my squad, which is the most important thing,” he said in a statement released on his personal social media accounts.

“Villarreal CF is my home and I am 100% committed. Honestly, I am grateful for the interest of a great club, but even more grateful to be here and that is why I communicated to Fernando Roig my decision to want to continue being part of this project because of the commitment and respect that I perceive from the club and from my players, which is mutual and reciprocal.

“I want to thank the fans for the support they have always shown me. On Sunday we have a very important game and I hope that together we can achieve victory,” he said.

Leading Spanish football pundit Guillem Balague had earlier claimed Emery rejected a move to Newcastle over a ‘lack of vision’ from the ownership.

Emery, 50, was the Saudi-backed club’s primary target to replace Bruce ahead of the weekend trip to face Brighton.

But they now find themselves back to the drawing board after being rebuffed by the four-time Europa League winner.

He said after his side’s 2-0 win over Young Boys in Tuesday’s Champions League: “They (Newcastle) have told me that they are interested in me. But there has been no offer to the club and I have been focused on this game.”