Unai Emery has everything he wants at Aston Villa.
The staff, the authority, the supportive owners who back him to the hilt, even helping to organise a regular charter flight from Birmingham to Spain that Emery books and pays for himself whenever he wants to take a trip home.
As exclusively reported in The Athletic on Tuesday, Villa have opted to reward Emery by triggering the clause in his contract to extend his current deal until 2027 before intending to sit down in the summer to extend terms further.
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Emery’s extension comes against the backdrop of speculation linking him to the looming vacancy at Germany’s Champions League semi-finalists and serial title winners Bayern Munich. Only on Sunday was the 52-year-old Spaniard asked about the reports.
“I am focused here, 100 per cent,” Emery said.
Sources, like others in this article, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships say Emery’s decision to commit his future to Villa, who are fourth in the Premier League with four games to go and on track for a first Champions League qualification since they were the old European Cup’s defending champions in 1982, is demonstrative of the close relationship forged with the club’s co-owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens. Both sides share a level of excitement about what Villa can achieve under Emery, believing all the key decision-makers are aligned in their thinking.
Edens and Sawiris want Emery’s tenure, which began in October 2022, to replicate the authority and longevity Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson had at the start of the Premier League era with Arsenal and Manchester United respectively. And, most importantly, Emery feels the same.
It is why, fundamentally, reports of a summer switch to Bayern were deemed extremely unlikely. Bayern do not tend to cede power to a manager or give them the type of authority and permit the number of aides Emery would want. They also have publicly-facing, and speaking, executives in what would be closer to the setup he experienced in 18 months as Wenger’s successor at Arsenal from 2018-19 than the one at Villa.
Those close to the situation say Emery’s camp did not receive contact from Bayern at any point.
Emery’s commitment to Villa has been met with delight from sources close to their players, with several members of the dressing room recognising the improvements they have made since he joined. The hours, and meetings, under him are long, but the team’s results have validated Emery’s meticulous preparation methods and, as a result, there is total buy-in from players.
The likes of striker Ollie Watkins, the captain John McGinn and defender Ezri Konsa have gone to the next level under his guidance.
One source joked how Emery, who often clips his analysis footage together himself, will work past 8pm on Fridays, which would eat into their weekend plans.
Young players regard being coached by Emery as a privilege, citing his experience working with world-class players at clubs including Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain and Villarreal, as well as Arsenal. His reputation, as a manager with a string of domestic and European trophies to his name, carries significant cachet and players, naturally, want to be noticed and impress him.
Villa represented Emery’s second crack at the Premier League and this time, no stone was going to be left unturned.
He assessed his demise at Arsenal, sacked after less than 18 months in November 2019, and accepted he had not paid enough attention to off-field matters, with his thinking often insular and kept within an immediate footballing bubble.
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Ultimately, internal politics, including a hierarchy structure that was in a state of flux and the club’s distant ownership not fully grasping the project, proved too much. Emery remained confident that, with time, Arsenal would reap the fruits of his labour long-term. It therefore came as a surprise to him that their faith evaporated so quickly.
So, after being appointed at Villa, Emery intended to build a structure robust enough to withstand dips in form and crucially, share a working relationship with owners who were on the same page.
Swiftly, he was given licence to press ahead with reorganising the club in his image, believing a settled, stable environment is more important than just having money to spend in the transfer market. Edens and Sawiris were enthused by ‘Project Emery’ and wanted to deliver a conducive network around him. His relationship with them is said to be vastly superior to the one he had with Arsenal’s key decision-makers, such as chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and then head of football Raul Sanllehi.
Those close to Emery now view the setup at Villa as comparable to that of last season’s treble winners Manchester City, in regards to building a team around a figurehead manager. They note that even on those fairly rare occasions where City have missed out on trophies in recent years, there is a sufficiently robust structure to rectify shortcomings quickly, while remaining supportive of manager Pep Guardiola.
Importantly, Guardiola shares a close friendship with those running City’s football department — director of football Txiki Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano — which has offered him further and deeper backing.
Emery and the group of close aides he has brought to Villa view the structure of a club as the chief ingredient when it comes to achieving success.
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Villa granted Emery increased autonomy to shape their football department last summer, after he guided a team who were fourth-bottom when he was hired seven months earlier to a seventh-place finish, securing a Europa Conference League spot (they are now in the semi-finals of that competition). This was universally appreciated by the coach and his support staff, aware this was not the position at most top clubs.
With a Spanish-speaking contingent running to more than two dozen, Emery wanted people he knew and could trust. There is an expectation from sources close to the dressing room that he will add to his staff again this summer.
He has his first-choice backroom team, including coaches, analysts and doctors. Emery’s personal assistant and closest friend Damian Vidagany’s job title changed during the off-season from personal assistant to director of football.
Ramon Verdejo, known throughout the game as Monchi, joined from Sevilla at that time as president of football operations. Like Vidagany, his purpose was to provide a stable base and a calibre of player suited to Emery’s needs. The structure of the hierarchy became a triangle of power involving the three men. Vidagany’s remit, as he described to The Athletic is to “execute Emery and Monchi’s strategy”.
Sporting director Johan Lange moved away from the day-to-day running of the club to assist the owners with their plans to include Villa in a multi-club model before eventually joining fellow Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur early this season, along with head of recruitment Rob Mackenzie.
“What we need to do here is to let Unai take the sporting decisions, let Monchi choose the players with Unai, and all of us provide a strong structure — like a fortress — to give them time to develop the project,” Vidagany has said. “Because at the end, the difference between a success and a failure is the time.
“We are lucky to work in Villa. You don’t know how lucky Aston Villa is to have these owners. What we found here are owners who are committed financially but embracing the heritage.
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“We knew from the first moment we were not going to be Manchester City or Manchester United, but we knew that if we are professional and explain the plan, the owners will be committed to the plan. Aston Villa has a great project, because the owners are respecting the club and a loyal fanbase.”
Emery’s previous contract was worth around £6million ($7.5m) a year, putting him in the top bracket of Premier League coaches. His value to Villa, however, far exceeds that, in both a football and a commercial sense.
Last month, Villa posted a huge loss of £119.6million post-tax in their end-of-year accounts for 2022-23.
Although Villa stated the figures fell in line with “the strategic business plan” and that the club “operates within the Premier League’s profit and sustainability Rules (PSR)”, they are straying dangerously close to a breach of those regulations, with off-the-field decision-makers, such as president of business operations Chris Heck, making concerted attempts to quickly increase revenue streams.
The club have extracted themselves from contracts with partners such as kit manufacturer Castore and front-of-shirt sponsor BK8, before signing more lucrative agreements elsewhere. Other sponsorship deals, including on the club’s kit, have been explored in recent months.
The inescapable feeling has been, however, that if Villa continue spending in line with the team’s performance on the pitch and/or to stay on the safe side of PSR, they will likely need to sell a current first-team player for a substantial profit — particularly given the significant losses incurred. This formed the thinking of £50million-rated midfielder Jacob Ramsey interesting clubs such as Newcastle United in this year’s winter transfer window, due to the 22-year-old’s status as a homegrown academy graduate counting as pure bookable profit, which would alleviate PSR concerns.
Hanging onto fourth and securing Champions League qualification would be essential in easing PSR fears too, while Emery will again expect to be backed in the market over the summer.
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“If Villa get into the Champions League, it is (worth) about £35million,” says one source close to the club involved in this area of finance. Other uplifts and financial rewards for wins in the competition’s first phase next season would help — should they go on to qualify — but Villa would still need to make more money to ease concerns entirely.
When it comes to Emery, though, Villa feel he is worth investing in, with the club geared towards his way of working and his support network. He is driving their current success, enthusiastically supported by the owners.
Senior figures involved in non-related footballing matters have told The Athletic that other aspects at Villa are having to play catch-up in mirroring the advancement shown under Emery’s leadership. This is reflected in recruitment, where the Spaniard is not content with signing ‘second-rate’ players for the sake of it.
It is not fanciful that the club hope Emery builds a dynasty at Villa Park. This contract extension is the latest demonstration of such belief.
GO DEEPER
Relentless Villa are being roared to the finish line by a crowd very much playing its part
(Top photo: Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images)
