Unai Emery Remains Bullish in Testing Villa Transfer Window

Emery’s Intelligent Transfer Market

“It’s the year we are changing more than normal, and I am really excited because I think we are doing (an) intelligent (transfer) market,” declared Unai Emery, summing up Aston Villa’s transfer window at Bodymoor Heath ahead of Sunday’s trip to Brighton.

The excitement perhaps comes in the challenge ahead. While he won’t admit it publicly, he’s certainly playing down the scale of what has actually happened in the past few weeks. Villa go into a season opener as Europa League holders and a Champions League side having lost five confirmed starters from the team that won both, with a sixth, Ollie Watkins, likely to be confirmed out of the door soon.

Morgan Rogers left for Chelsea in a £117m deal that made him the most expensive British footballer in history. Youri Tielemans followed his release clause to Manchester United for £35m. Lucas Digne returned to Paris Saint-Germain. Ezri Konsa joined Arsenal’s quest to retain their title. That is the spine of a European-winning midfield and defence gone inside a single window, not to mention a World Cup-winning keeper who needs a new club, after Emiliano Martínez has tested the club’s patience over two summers now.

Emery was asked directly about the departures, and refreshingly answered at length rather than swerving the question with a stock answer. 

“I am delighted with everything we did together,” he said. “Some players are leaving, Konsa… I am happy for him. I am for other players when they are leaving. Why? Because when we arrived here, they were performing up and down, not a lot at a high level, competing for something like we did after it.

“They deserve it, because they are players who had a huge commitment and the necessary discipline to work hard and get it. They were always being so, so responsible and so, so respectful of everything. Lucas Digne, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers, I am so, so grateful. I learned a lot with those players: how we were setting our standard and they were always there; how we pushed teammates to be consistent, and when we are being successful, the consequences can happen like they happened this summer. They are leaving because they are thinking they must get another challenge in their career.”

Anticipating how supporters would judge Villa’s replacements for those outgoing mainstays, Emery made a pointed and detailed comparison.

“There are other players who are going to continue here with us and the challenges we have. We’ve replaced those players with other players, in a similar situation to when we arrived here. Lucas Digne was coming from Everton, and he was not being in a high level because he was not in his national team and I was not so happy with how he was performing. After we were setting our standard, he did it. He deserved how he was coming back to Paris Saint-Germain again.

“Konsa is more or less the same situation; Morgan Rogers, we signed him from the Championship, and his progression was really fantastic, always very disciplined and professional in everything. Youri Tielemans is another very good example.”

“Now we have other players and we’re going to try and do the same way with them like we did with other players. Now it’s João Gomes, it’s Johan Manzambi, it’s Matteo Ruggeri. We want one centre-back more to replace Konsa, but we have a young centre-back, (Modou Kéba) Cissé, working with us in pre-season. He’s a young player with potential. This is the way we are trying to work. We are building the team again.”

Rinse and Repeat

This is not unfamiliar territory for Emery. He oversaw a similar clear-out at Sevilla after winning the Europa League there, trading key players for a fresh cycle more than once during his time in charge. The Premier League is a different proposition, though, and the financial gulf to what’s become known as the Sky Six makes the margin for error far smaller than anything he dealt with in Spain. 

The early signs of the rebuild have shown promise. Gomes and Manzambi (at least on paper) will both add a level of energy and dynamism to the midfield that was arguably missing at times last season, and Brian Madjo, now cleared to play, has proven in preseason he already offers a genuine additional attacking option rather than makeweight squad depth. 

One thing that Emery seemingly can’t control is his luck with injuries: Madjo, Gomes and Manzambi are all set to miss the start of the season through injury. 

The defence has had two solid additions, with the incoming Aaron Wan-Bissaka providing Matty Cash finally with some legitimate competition at right-back. Lucas Digne shouldn’t be missed either, with Ruggeri, a Europa League winner, coming in at left-back. As well as being solid, he offers Villa the bonus of his 6ft 2in height to the back line. 

In goal, the promising Zion Suzuki’s arrival raises a different kind of question in whether a player new to English football can settle into Emery’s structure quickly enough to be trusted with it. Plus, he has some big gloves to fill, so will need patience.

Transfer Business to be Done

The gap is specifically at centre-back, where Konsa’s confirmed exit leaves Cissé as the only depth option behind Victor Lindelöf. This is the chief concern, but Villa have their targets. 

In truth, Emery could probably have done with three further weeks of pre-season to gel his team and get some injured players back, but after Villa play their first five league games, the season pauses for the newly extended three-week international break. It’s a period that will help with those current injury concerns and allow Emery to further instruct his new recruits.

The fate of Watkins, meanwhile, remains a key factor in how Villa’s season could pan out. If he leaves, as he is expected to do, then how Villa handle replacing him will say as much about the scale of this rebuild as any business done so far. 

There are other factors within Emery’s control too. Can he be the man who gets a consistent tune out of Alejandro Garnacho, reversing the downtrend he’s been on in the past two seasons? 

That, alongside any recruits still to arrive before the deadline, will go a long way to determining whether this window looks intelligent in six months’ time.

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Emery’s Call for Patience

Emery’s message to supporters is similar to the one conveyed at the start of his time at Villa.

“They were patient when we arrived here,” reflected Emery. “They were patient, even (when) we changed a little bit, the style, the idea. 

“A little bit or a lot, it depends, and we needed to teach the supporters about the new way we were trying to build. And now, we are going to keep the same idea, same style, the same objectives, ambition, the objective we have, with the new players. And of course, we must be patient. I don’t know, maybe yes, maybe not, it depends if we are performing well, if we will need time to build the team as strong as possible, and it needs time to get it.”

It’s a fair ask, made by a manager with plenty of credit in the bank after last season, and who remains the one figure at the club supporters can trust.

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