Emery 2.0 – The Rebuild Begins
Aston Villa’s record sale of the summer is done, two more first-team regulars have followed him out of the door, and a run of players in their early twenties has arrived to replace them. After over three seasons of a largely inherited core, it’s now becoming Emery’s team now.
The abbreviated story of the transfer window so far is Morgan Rogers has left for Chelsea in a £117m deal, a fee that makes him the most expensive British player in the game’s history. Youri Tielemans has joined Manchester United. Lucas Digne has returned to Paris Saint-Germain. In have come Johan Manzambi, a club-record signing despite only being 20-years-old, João Gomes, and Alejandro Garnacho.
Taken individually, each deal has its own explanation. Taken together, it’s the clearest reshaping of the squad Emery has made since he arrived at Villa Park, and it’s happening in the same summer Villa go into their second Champions League campaign under him.
What’s actually driving it isn’t simply just squad-building, and it isn’t as simple as it looks from the outside.
This week’s astonvilla.wtf newsletter, back after a break and landing every Friday from here, goes into the numbers behind the summer: what Villa’s Europa League winning season was genuinely worth set against what this rebuild is costing, and why qualifying for Europe has quietly become as much a financial obligation as a sporting one.
There’s also a first-hand account of a meeting Pro Ref, the renamed PGMOL, the organisation behind English referees and the dreaded VAR, on what’s changing behind the scenes in English refereeing.
It’s free, and this week’s issue is live now.
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Clearly a business model in place with regards to Rogers leaving. Why on earth go to Chelsea who can’t offer CL where as Arsenal and us can. Clever bit of business by the club and I’m more upset my McPhee leaving.
I have every bit of faith that Unai can better us when these players leave.
The re build is taking shape albeit I think we need at least 3 more quality signings left and right back and a clinical striker, personally I can’t see it but if we could get Mbaye from PSG he together with Manzabi would cause major problems for defenders .
On another subject don’t you get teed of with this Martinez Juventus saga I mean who is in charge of our negotiations just tell them once and for all pay up or shut up and simply put the phone down, why are we allowing these idiots to pressure us into giving them a massive discount on our valuation of Martinez come on Villa get tough and close it down, it’s boring and we’re being taken for a soft touch.