Unai Emery walked into Villa Park four years ago with two clear aims: winning a trophy with Aston Villa and playing European football. Fast-forward to today and Villa will run out at the Nou Camp to face Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday night, having won the Europa League in May and ending a 30-year trophy drought. Emery has already achieved his goals, which has led to natural speculation about the next step with Villa or elsewhere.
Villa were angered to the point of threatening legal action when Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher said Emery would want to manage an elite club, with Manchester United admirers. Villa, though, see themselves as a club ready to join the elite - having challenged them in the Premier League and Europe for the past two years. Emery celebrates his 55th birthday on Tuesday by facing Barca back in his home country.
Carragher's assertion the Spaniard would be open to leaving Villa was naive, given how much Emery controls matters at the club and the success he has had with them. He signed his most recent contract in May 2024, taking him to 2029, so Villa are protected - but there will ultimately be a new deal following the Europa League triumph. He has taken Villa up the pecking order, but they are still not at the top of it - though they remain well placed, as the signing of Johan Manzambi from Freiburg showed.
Villa still lost players in the summer to traditionally bigger clubs: Emi Martinez, Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne, with Ollie Watkins also leaving for Saudi Arabia. But the changes have given Emery new vigour. Nights at the Nou Camp give the Spaniard the chance to prove his worth and the progress made at Villa. "We are constantly seeking new challenges and we want to respond in games against Barcelona to see how far we are from them," he said. "We won it [the European Cup] in 1982 and right now we are enjoying reminiscing with our fans, playing in this competition again, and trying to repeat that success." Barcelona are favourites because of the present and what they have done over the last 10 years, but they need to confirm their favourite role.
The way this league stage goes, to end up finishing it in the first eight we need to avoid any kind of surprise. There will be times during the season when you walk your own path, but it needs to be clear the second part of the season is when things will be decided. Barcelona have six points, we have nine.
We need to find out our personality and make the most of our qualities.".
Source: BBC Sport Football · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing