Former Arsenal boss Unai Emery announced as Gerrard's replacement at Villa Park
The Spaniard leaves Villareal after leading them to Europa League success
After sacking Steven Gerrard last week, Aston Villa have appointed former Arsenal boss Unai Emery as the club's new head coach.
The club said the 50 year-old Spaniard, who joins them from Villarreal, will take over from November 1st after work permit formalities are completed.
It will be Emery's second Premier League stint after managing Arsenal for 18 months before he was dismissed following a seven-match losing run.
Emery was due to be out of contract with Villarreal at the end of this season.
It has been reported that Villa will pay a buy-out fee to the LaLiga club of around £5million.
Villa responded to Gerrard's sacking by beating Brentford 4-0 on Sunday.
In a statement, the club said: "Aston Villa is delighted to announce the appointment of Unai Emery as the club's new head coach.
"Unai joins from Villarreal, whom he led to Europa League success by beating Manchester United in the final in 2021, as well as the semi-finals of the Champions League last season.
"A highly-experienced top level coach who has managed over 900 games, Unai has also previously managed in the Premier League during a spell with Arsenal, leading the Gunners to a Europa League final.
"In Seville, he won three successive Europa League titles between 2013 and 2016 before going on to lift a Ligue 1 championship in France as well as two French Cups, two French League Cups and two Trophee des Champions.
Villarreal said Emery would hold a farewell press conference at the club's training ground on Tuesday.
"Head coach Unai Emery has informed Villareal CF of his unilateral decision to terminate his contract with the club," the Spanish outfit said in a statement.
"Villarreal CF would like to thank Unai Emery for the work he has done and wishes him the best of luck in his career."
Emery said it had been a "perfect" journey with Villarreal, but he had made a "difficult" decision to seek a new challenge.
"For the past few days I have been thinking carefully and feeling what my decision should be," Emery wrote on Twitter.
"Farewell is hard and difficult, but my feeling and my reflection is that I must start a new project."
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