Unai Emery rejects Newcastle to stay with Villarreal

Villarreal manager Unai Emery has confirmed he is staying with the La Liga club and will not take over at Newcastle United.

The Spanish side held talks with Emery overnight following the Champions League victory over Young Boys and convinced him to rebuff interest from the Magpies and remain at the Estadio de la Ceramica.

Newcastle spoke with Emery's representatives over the weekend and appeared to have made him their first choice to succeed the recently departed Steve Bruce.

Formal interviews have also been held with Eddie Howe, Lucien Favre and Paulo Fonseca in recent weeks.

However, in a statement on Wednesday Emery ruled himself out of the running.

“Through a lot of noise that there was yesterday in another country, inside the club there was transparency and loyalty with the Roig family and my squad," he wrote on Twitter. "That is most important to me.

"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."

90min understands Villarreal held talks on Tuesday night in an effort to convince him to stay with the Europa League winners and have been successful.

Villarreal president Fernando Roig did not want to lose Emery halfway through the season and fought harder to keep him than the manager thought he would. We also understand it was Emery's party who instigated the talks with recently moneyed Newcastle, leaving the Tyneside club in trouble as previous candidates have now backed away.

Roig recently said: “I have absolutely no idea [about any approach]. What I do know is that he has a contract with us and contracts are there to be fulfilled. I have no doubts about Unai’s professionalism.

"The important thing is that fans can’t be bought. They don’t go to Newcastle or Manchester United."

Interim head coach Graeme Jones will take charge of Newcastle's trip to Brighton on Saturday night. They still hope to have a new permanent manager appointed by then.

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