Sanz will move to Villa after spending the last year as assistant manager at Osasuna. NurPhoto via Getty ImagesJune 29, 2026 8:38 am EDT Updated Chema Sanz is expected to join Unai Emery’s coaching staff at Aston Villa.Provided talks are finalised, the 56-year-old Spaniard will move to Villa after spending the last year as assistant manager at Osasuna.Sanz confirmed earlier this month that he would leave the La Liga club following a season serving as assistant to head coach, Alessio Lisci.The Valencian has enjoyed a long career working at multiple Spanish clubs, having started as a conditioning coach with Levante in the 1990s.Sanz’s progression has seen him take several jobs, including serving as a conditioning coach elsewhere, including Real Oviedo, Tenerife, Real Zaragoza, Cordoba and Deportivo de A Coruna. In 2001 he became head of methodology at Valencia’s academy and then, nine years later, Sanz worked briefly for a three-game spell as the assistant coach to Villa’s current sporting director, Roberto Olabe, at Almeria.
Other posts include stepping up to be assistant manager to Marcelino at Valencia between 2017-2019 before taking charge of the club’s B team.Sanz later joined Sheffield United and Paul Heckingbottom as his assistant in 2021 before returning to Spain to be Ruben Baraja’s No 2 at Valencia.Sanz therefore brings a wealth of experience and will work underneath Emery at Villa. He is known for establishing strong relationships between players and staff.He will be another Spaniard to join Emery, which spans more than a dozen across several departments. He is set to join a coaching team staff that includes the likes of set-piece coach Austin MacPhee and first-team coach Pablo Villanueva.Villa’s players will return to pre-season in the coming weeks, but have already welcomed back a significant group of players who spent last season on loan elsewhere.Jun 29, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms
