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Aston Villa sign ex-Unai Emery teammate who revived Alexander Isak and Martin Odegaard’s careers

Aston Villa havenamed Roberto Olabe as their new president of football operations The move has been announced swiftly after the news that Monchi has left the position at the Premier League club. GettyEmery and Monchi worked together at Sevilla before Villa[/caption] He will now reunite with his former Sociedad teammate, OlabeAFP Sources close to the Spaniard suggest that he felt he took Villa as far as he could due to financial constraints at the club. Unai Emery’s side are 18th and winless in the Premier League following their 1-1 draw away at ten-man Sunderland on Sunday. Villa are beginning to feel the effects of a poor summer transfer window, having been ranked 16th on talkSPORT’s list of all 20 teams. However, the arrival of Olabe represents a huge coup, having been a previous target of both Arsenal and Real Madrid. The 57-year-old put European clubs on red alert upon announcing his exit from Real Sociedad at the end of last season. Olabe’s work at La Real since becoming their director of football in March 2018 helped propel the team to a 2020 Copa del Rey win, Champions League qualification, and multiple Europa League appearances, with their players soon sealing big-money transfers. The retired goalkeeper turned out for Sociedad as a player, famously alongside Emery during the 1995/96 campaign. During his first stint as the club’s sporting director, Olabe helped assemble the team that finished two points behind Madrid for the 2002/03 LaLiga title, headlined by a teenage Xabi Alonso. A young Mikel Arteta was then signed from Rangers, laying the groundwork for his focus on buying Sociedad stars at Arsenal. Gunners captain Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, and Martin Zubimendi can all credit Olabe for a role in their development. Olabe brought an emerging Arteta to his hometown club in 2004Getty Arsenal have since benefited from the signings of Zubimendi and Merino in successive summersGetty Olabe helped revive Odegaard’s career Sociedad enjoyed their most successful stint in decades following Olabe’s return in 2018 for his third spell as sporting director. Odegaard was a key part of the squad who enjoyed Copa del Rey glory, having been given the platform to revive his career. The Norwegian hit the headlines in 2015 when he was snapped up by Madrid at 16, but he still hadn’t established himself four years later. Olabe had studied Odegaard’s adaptation in Real Madrid Castilla and his loan spells at Heerenveen and Vitesse to convince him to join. Olabe told the Daily Star in 2023: “Martin perfectly understood the game. That was his most important attribute. It was his interpretation of the game and what was happening around him at every single moment. Odegaard had loans at three different clubs before joining Arsenal, including Real SociedadGETTY Newcastle smashed their transfer record to bring Isak to TynesideGetty “His capacity to interpret the game was and is higher than the individual qualities. Because he thinks quickly, he is able to adapt and get one step ahead of opponents that people think are physically quicker. “It wasn’t just one specific quality like control, receptions, last pass, shooting or set-pieces. His box of attributes was already full, complete. “He had extraordinary values in a professional sense. He was serious about hard work, being a team player and he had the right mentality to continually improve. “He wanted to be more every single day. With youth players, you usually needed to push that, but not with this guy.” Odegaard was far from the only young star who revived their career at Sociedad, with Olabe also signing Alexander Isak in 2019. Within three years, Olabe was part of the negotiations that led to a club-record sale of the Swede to Newcastle – who in turn have now sold the striker for a British transfer record £125m to Liverpool. Caicedo came through the ranks at Independiente del Valle before joining BrightonGetty Images - Getty Olabe helped produce Ecuador’s ‘golden generation’ It’s not just at Sociedad that he has left his mark – having also been the head of sporting strategy at Independiente del Valle. Olabe helped build the youth system at the Ecuadorian side, which has since produced the likes of Moises Caicedo and Piero Hincapie. At the 2022 World Cup, 12 of Ecuador’s 26-man squad had a link to Independiente del Valle, with the majority being under the age of 22 at the time of the tournament. Fittingly, Olabe spent a period assisting Qatar in their World Cup preparations, with the two countries facing off in the opening game. talkSPORT

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Aston Villa sign ex-Unai Emery teammate who revived Alexander Isak and Martin Odegaard’s careers

Aston Villa havenamed Roberto Olabe as their new president of football operations

The move has been announced swiftly after the news that Monchi has left the position at the Premier League club.

Emery and Monchi worked together at Sevilla before Villa[/caption]

He will now reunite with his former Sociedad teammate, Olabe

Sources close to the Spaniard suggest that he felt he took Villa as far as he could due to financial constraints at the club.

Unai Emery’s side are 18th and winless in the Premier League following their 1-1 draw away at ten-man Sunderland on Sunday.

Villa are beginning to feel the effects of a poor summer transfer window, having been ranked 16th on talkSPORT’s list of all 20 teams.

However, the arrival of Olabe represents a huge coup, having been a previous target of both Arsenal and Real Madrid.

The 57-year-old put European clubs on red alert upon announcing his exit from Real Sociedad at the end of last season.

Olabe’s work at La Real since becoming their director of football in March 2018 helped propel the team to a 2020 Copa del Rey win, Champions League qualification, and multiple Europa League appearances, with their players soon sealing big-money transfers.

The retired goalkeeper turned out for Sociedad as a player, famously alongside Emery during the 1995/96 campaign.

During his first stint as the club’s sporting director, Olabe helped assemble the team that finished two points behind Madrid for the 2002/03 LaLiga title, headlined by a teenage Xabi Alonso.

A young Mikel Arteta was then signed from Rangers, laying the groundwork for his focus on buying Sociedad stars at Arsenal.

Gunners captain Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, and Martin Zubimendi can all credit Olabe for a role in their development.

Olabe brought an emerging Arteta to his hometown club in 2004

Arsenal have since benefited from the signings of Zubimendi and Merino in successive summers

Olabe helped revive Odegaard’s career

Sociedad enjoyed their most successful stint in decades following Olabe’s return in 2018 for his third spell as sporting director.

Odegaard was a key part of the squad who enjoyed Copa del Rey glory, having been given the platform to revive his career.

The Norwegian hit the headlines in 2015 when he was snapped up by Madrid at 16, but he still hadn’t established himself four years later.

Olabe had studied Odegaard’s adaptation in Real Madrid Castilla and his loan spells at Heerenveen and Vitesse to convince him to join.

Olabe told the Daily Star in 2023: “Martin perfectly understood the game. That was his most important attribute. It was his interpretation of the game and what was happening around him at every single moment.

Odegaard had loans at three different clubs before joining Arsenal, including Real Sociedad

Newcastle smashed their transfer record to bring Isak to Tyneside

“His capacity to interpret the game was and is higher than the individual qualities. Because he thinks quickly, he is able to adapt and get one step ahead of opponents that people think are physically quicker.

“It wasn’t just one specific quality like control, receptions, last pass, shooting or set-pieces. His box of attributes was already full, complete.

“He had extraordinary values in a professional sense. He was serious about hard work, being a team player and he had the right mentality to continually improve.

“He wanted to be more every single day. With youth players, you usually needed to push that, but not with this guy.”

Odegaard was far from the only young star who revived their career at Sociedad, with Olabe also signing Alexander Isak in 2019.

Within three years, Olabe was part of the negotiations that led to a club-record sale of the Swede to Newcastle – who in turn have now sold the striker for a British transfer record £125m to Liverpool.

Caicedo came through the ranks at Independiente del Valle before joining Brighton

Olabe helped produce Ecuador’s ‘golden generation’

It’s not just at Sociedad that he has left his mark – having also been the head of sporting strategy at Independiente del Valle.

Olabe helped build the youth system at the Ecuadorian side, which has since produced the likes of Moises Caicedo and Piero Hincapie.

At the 2022 World Cup, 12 of Ecuador’s 26-man squad had a link to Independiente del Valle, with the majority being under the age of 22 at the time of the tournament.

Fittingly, Olabe spent a period assisting Qatar in their World Cup preparations, with the two countries facing off in the opening game.