Ade Richards

Unai Emery’s record as Aston Villa manager is truly remarkable when looked at in its entirety. He took over in October of 2022 with the team 14th and just 3 points off the relegation zone following on from a dismal end to the tenure of Steven Gerrard. From there, they won 15 of their remaining Premier League fixtures to finish 7th and qualify for the Conference League. In the 2023/24 season that followed, they finished 4th in the top flight, qualifying for the Champions League whilst making it to the semi-finals of the Conference League simultaneously. The 2024/25 season saw them reach the Champions League quarter-finals where they were knocked out 5-4 on aggregate by eventual winners PSG despite being 5-1 down after just 27 minutes of the second leg, they also made it to an FA Cup semi-final and finished just outside of the Champions League places again. This season, after a very poor opening few weeks by their standards, they’ve won 13 of their last 15 in all competitions, including their last 7 on the bounce, with their most recent win coming at home to league leaders Arsenal with pretty much the last kick of the game. They’re 3rd in the Premier League, just 3 points off the Gunners at the top and are also 3rd in the Europa League, level on points with Lyon who sit in 1st on goal difference. The true measure of Emery’s success over the last 3 and a bit years though, is that his win % at Aston Villa stands at 55.28% across 161 matches, well clear of George Ramsey’s record of 49.59% at the top of the charts for every manager in the club’s history. Villa are a massive football club, their description as a “sleeping giant” of English football was well founded before Emery’s arrival but what he has done there deserves to be shouted about from the rooftops. It’s no wonder they all think he walks on water.

These comments from Tyrone Mings and John McGinn regarding Jacob Ramsey’s move to Newcastle from Aston Villa are remarkably pointed. You very rarely see players actively coming out and alluding to behind the scenes stuff like this on social media.

The job Unai Emery has done at Aston Villa in 2.5 years is nothing short of remarkable. When he took over at Aston Villa in November of 2022, they were 14th and just 3 points above the relegation zone after an extremely bitter end to the tenure of Steven Gerrard. They won 15 of their remaining league games to finish 7th & qualify for the UEFA Conference, from there they finished 4th in the 2023/24 season, making it into the Champions League whilst simultaneously reaching the Conference League semi-finals. This season, they made it to a Champions League quarter-final where they went toe-to-toe with a truly scary PSG side; almost taking it to extra time despite being 5-1 down on aggregate after 28 minutes of the second leg. They’re sat a single point off 5th for a place in next season’s Champions League with 6 games left and have an FA Cup semi-final against Palace (I know) coming up at the end of April too. Yes, Aston Villa are a huge club, one of those archetypal names spoken of as a sleeping giants throughout the 90s and 00s but Unai Emery is the man who’s woken them up; he deserves immense credit for the pretty much constant progress made under his guidance.