Unai Emery’s coaching team is almost assembled, with all but one of its members decided, according to reports in Spain.

Marca write that Juan Carcedo will take up his usual role as Emery’s first assistant. Then Pablo Villanueva will be his second assistant, and Victor Manas his tactical analyst. All three have worked with Emery before, and in Carcedo’s case he’s followed the head coach to every club for 12 years now.

Finally, there’s an open spot for a ‘local assistant’, someone who knows the club and its culture. Steve Bould could potentially fill this spot, or perhaps an ex-player who speaks Spanish, to bridge the cultural divide.

Marca’s reliability on Arsenal matters has always been a bit hit and miss. However, in this case we can take them a bit more seriously. They were one of the first outlets to rule out Mikel Arteta as Arsenal manager, and they likely have connections to Emery through his many coaching spells in Spain.

It’s good that the new head coach already has a team assembled. Hopefully they should all know each other well, and know how best to work together to achieve results.

The only unknown, of course, is the local assistant. We still don’t know if Steve Bould will stay or go, so he’s certainly an option. Robert Pires spent time in Spain and never seems to leave the Arsenal training ground, so he fits the criteria well.

Then Thierry Henry is another alternative. He’s currently assistant manager with the Belgium national team, but when Roberto Martinez and his other assistants renewed their contracts with Belgium last week, Henry didn’t. We’ll have to wait and see if that means anything.