Emery to mark four years at Villa with Champions League trip to Barcelona
Unai Emery will mark four years in charge of Aston Villa and his 55th birthday on Tuesday when Villa travel to the Nou Camp to face Barcelona in a Champions League group-stage fixture, having taken over from Steven Gerrard in November 2022. He led Villa to the Europa League title in May, ending a 30-year trophy drought.
At his unveiling in November 2022 Emery set out two targets, saying: "My dream is to win a trophy with Aston Villa. It's my challenge," and "My second dream and my objective could be to play with Aston Villa in Europe. But now, we have to start thinking only the next match because we are not in good position in the table now." He signed a contract in May 2024 running to 2029 and the club expects a fresh deal after the Europa League success. Villa publicly objected to Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher's suggestion that Emery would want to manage an elite club, at one point threatening legal action.
Villa see themselves as a club ready to enter the top tier of European teams after challenging in the Premier League and Europe over the past two seasons under Emery. The club's recruitment this window included Johan Manzambi from Freiburg as part of that strategy. They also lost several players in the summer transfer period: Emi Martinez, Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne, while Ollie Watkins moved to Saudi Arabia.
Emery was given "carte blanche" to reshape the squad and has overseen a transformation from Premier League strugglers to Europa League winners and Champions League competitors. His methods are described as intense — players can have several long meetings during the week and may take months to adapt to his demands. Internally, that approach is cited as a factor behind Aaron Wan-Bissaka's struggles this season, "having not had the same level of coaching at West Ham," and the exhaustive nature of Emery's style contributed to the departure of former president of football operations Monchi last year; the same meticulousness is credited with making his teams effective.
Opponents are alert to tactical weaknesses Villa might exploit: Barcelona sources pointed to Alejandro Balde's struggles and Joao Cancelo's "lack of defensive instinct" as areas Villa could target given Emery's capacity to plan. Barcelona manager Hansi Flick said: "He is one of the best coaches in Europe and the world. He is very successful." Flick added: "For us, it will be a tough game against a good team and, as well, a great coach." Barca winger Anthony Gordon also called Emery "one of the best in the world" ahead of the match.
Emery's record at the Nou Camp has been poor: he has lost 14 of his 15 games there and beaten Barcelona only three times in 30 attempts. His last Champions League outing at the stadium involved Paris St-Germain's 6-1 defeat in the last 16 after they had won the first leg 4-0. Reflecting on that match he said, "Everything happened in that match, we know," and added, "I started in 2004, playing in Europe 16 years in a row, different competitions, I have learned in all the competitions. In that match I learned so much. The necessity of VAR for football in that moment." He also noted, "Barcelona have six points, we have nine. We need to find out our personality and make the most of our qualities."
Emery has framed Tuesday's trip to the Nou Camp as a chance to "respond in games against Barcelona to see how far we are from them," a test of the progress he has overseen at Villa. The clubs meet in the Champions League group stage on Tuesday night, with Villa seeking to measure themselves against one of the competition's leading teams.
