Unai Emery’s former partner Sacha Wright claims the ex-Arsenal boss blamed her for his sacking at Arsenal, with the Spaniard branding her a “white witch”.
The 48-year-old lasted less than 18 months at Emirates Stadium before being relieved of his duties in November 2019.
Early signs of promise after being appointed as successor to Arsene Wenger quickly fizzled out, with the Gunners finding themselves going backwards before a change was made.
Emery opted to break up with Wright a couple of months before his departure and, after getting back together in December, sought to pass the buck when it came to his failings in north London.
Wright told The Sun on rekindling her romance with Emery: “It was then that he blamed me for getting him the sack. He told me I was a white witch as I had brought him so much bad luck. He said, ‘It was the day we broke up that we started to lose’.
“He told me he was so stressed out that his mind wasn’t in the right place after we separated.”
Having previously enjoyed success at Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain, much was expected of Emery when he arrived at Arsenal.
However, he found little value in the transfer market and struggled to get to grips with the English language.
Wright added: “We met in the summer of 2018 and we started chatting but I do not follow football so I had no idea who he was. He told me he worked in the sports industry and his English was bad as he’d just moved to London.
“He asked me out but said he didn’t want to meet anywhere too busy. He asked me to go to his house in Barnet but I told him no, absolutely not. We agreed to meet at an Italian restaurant in Hampstead. When we arrived, I realised he must be someone important as even though the restaurant was about to close, they kept it open.
“He had a heavy accent. He would regularly stop the conversation so he could check words on Google Translate on his phone, but I found him attractive from the moment we met.
“He dressed well and seemed like a really nice guy. He joked that I could be his English teacher.”
