Aston Villa hope Unai Emery will become their answer to Sir Alex Ferguson but when planning the current stage of his career the Spaniard had another boss in mind.
Having agreed a new contract that will make him one of the two best paid managers in the Premier League, Emery has the sort of structure at Villa that Pep Guardiola enjoyed for a decade at Manchester City.
Emery has always regarded Guardiola as the world’s best coach – and not just for the teams he has produced and the trophies he has won. The Basque admired Guardiola’s refusal to compromise on his vision for a club and has adopted those principles every step of the way at Villa, leading them from the bottom half to the Champions League.
‘We were speaking about how we can set our project stronger with a (new) deal, yes,’ Emery said last Friday, of a meeting he had with key figures at Villa including co-owner Nassef Sawiris a few days earlier. ‘Nassef is very ambitious, a hard worker and his commitment to the club is huge. It’s easy for me to have meetings with him as normally we are on the same page.’
This season began slowly but after six league games unbeaten, Villa are back in the top half and three points off the top five, as well as sitting sixth in the Champions League group phase with three wins from four.
After Emery underlined his desire to stay at Villa Park, Daily Mail Sport looks at what comes next for him and Villa.
Aston Villa hope Unai Emery will become their answer to Sir Alex Ferguson as he prepares to extend his stay in the Midlands
After a slow start this season, Villa are in fine form in both the Premier League and Champions League
Why now?
With about two-and-a-half years still remaining on Emery’s previous deal, there was no need for Sawiris to rush. His decision is both a show of faith and a recognition of the current climate.
Emery was on a five-man shortlist to replace Michael Carrick at Manchester United but Daily Mail Sport understands he is unlikely to have moved to Old Trafford even without the contract discussions.
Studying Guardiola convinced Emery that to be successful, a manager needs control. He cannot operate if he has only limited influence over recruitment, or if he has no say in senior appointments – something United are highly unlikely to have granted.
Unlike at many clubs, where sporting directors and heads of performance are brought in by the chairman or chief executive, Emery has driven the key hires at Villa. Since Emery’s arrival, the number of Spanish backroom staff at Villa has grown well into double figures.
Director of football operations Damian Vidagany moved to Villa with Emery in 2022 and was a key reason why Emery accepted the job. Emery also pushed for Monchi to be brought in as ‘president of football operations’ and when that went wrong, he was allowed to select the next guy – Roberto Olabe. It is hard to imagine many other clubs where that would happen.
So far Olabe has been much better than his predecessor, whose dire record in the market saw him ditched a little more than a year ago.
Emery would have had none of this influence at United. In Sawiris, he has a highly supportive boss – contrast that with Sir Jim Ratcliffe. He makes the final calls on recruitment, rather than relying on the equivalent of Jason Wilcox.
Emery’s sense of self-worth is too great and his record too impressive to accept answering to executives of inferior ability. At Villa, he answers only to the ownership group, and he has forged a rock-solid relationship with Sawiris.
Emery was the driving force behind the appointments of director of football operations Damian Vidagany (left) and president of football operations Roberto Olabe (right)
Emery has a rock-solid relationship with co-owner Nassef Sawiris
Emery-Sawiris axis
There are few top clubs these days where the manager has a direct line to the owner but the Sawiris-Emery connection took shape in the autumn of 2022, weeks before he was hired. Sawiris could see the Steven Gerrard experiment was failing and wanted a top-class manager. He looked at Mauricio Pochettino, Thomas Tuchel and Emery.
After a difficult experience at Arsenal, Emery had won the Europa League with Villarreal and was assured by Sawiris that he would have the run of Villa. Emery felt he had never had this level of influence during his 18 months at Arsenal and throughout the process, Sawiris has been as good as his word.
Emery joined on just under £10million per year and his new salary would be close to double that. His wishes in the market have been backed, even when it has been tricky to make the sums add up. Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio were signed on loan at huge expense in January 2025 to deliver Champions League football. That did not happen, but there was no blowback for Emery because Sawiris trusted the direction of travel.
Every one of his requests has been approved. The current stadium redevelopment was planned for 2024 but was shelved because Emery did not wish to play Champions League games in a three-sided ground. Now, he has accepted the bigger picture.
At the training ground, a 40-room hotel was signed off on Emery’s say-so. When Harvey Elliott was brought in on loan and then left in the cold, or when £26m signing Evann Guessand proved a mistake, it was Monchi who took the rap, not Emery.
That sort of loyalty cuts both ways. With their stock so high, how many managers would have stuck around after six of their first-choice starting XI from a Europa League final win had been sold? Emery is taking a risk to his reputation by leading this rebuild but he trusts both himself and Sawiris to get it right.
Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio were signed on loan at huge expense in 2025 to deliver Champions League football. There was no blowback for Emery when that did not happen
When Harvey Elliott was brought in on loan and then left in the cold, or when £26m signing Evann Guessand proved a mistake, it was Monchi (pictured) who took the rap, not Emery
What next?
There was a moment at the end of Friday’s press conference when Emery showed just how much he was invested in Aston Villa.
The Spaniard had just been asked if he could elevate Villa to the same level as Europe’s giants and instead of delivering the usual platitudes, Emery referred to the Deloitte Money League, which ranks clubs by the revenue they generate.
To emphasise his point, Emery grabbed his phone, found the page and confirmed that Villa had risen to 14th in the 2024-25 list, generating £376m in that period.
How many top-flight managers are even aware of the Deloitte Money League, let alone their club’s position in it? When asked about finances, most bosses will – quite legitimately – answer that these matters are for senior executives to handle.
Not Emery, who has made a definite shift in recent seasons. He now understands that because of Villa’s financial needs, part of his job will be to sign promising players, increase their value and then – potentially – sell them for double the fee.
This summer, Villa sold Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins for a combined £253m. They were signed for a total of just £48m.
You can already picture Zion Suzuki and Johan Manzambi, two of the summer additions, falling into this category.
The unknown is how Emery might feel about this strategy in two or three years’ time if Villa slip out of contention for the Champions League.
Because for all the justifiable enthusiasm about a new contract, this will not be an easy road. Not surprisingly for an overhauled team, Villa are inconsistent.
Villa bought Morgan Rogers (fourth left), Ollie Watkins (fourth right), Ezri Konsa (right) and Youri Tielemans (not pictured) for a combined £48m, then sold them all this summer for £253m
You can already see Johan Manzambi – signed for £52m this summer – being the next player Villa make a huge profit from
After the Europa League triumph in May, Emery’s dream is to win the Champions League and last week he made a strong case for saying he could do so with Villa
Throw in their issues with financial regulations and the stadium rebuild and it would be no shock – nor any disgrace – if they finished outside the top five for the next couple of seasons.
Would that be enough for Emery, though? His dream is to win the Champions League and last week he made a strong case for saying he could do so with Villa.
Emery cited Leicester winning the Premier League and his own journey with Villarreal to the Champions League semi-finals in 2022.
Yet the rules are stacked in favour of the wealthiest and no matter how hard they try, Villa may never crack the code. By investing so heavily in Emery, though, Sawiris believes he is giving them a proper shot.
