Earlier this season, Unai Emery gave an interview in which he uttered: “I’ve not come to Aston Villa to mess about.”
As the club reflects this morning on an incredible rise from a swirling vortex of confusion left behind following Steven Gerrard’s sacking to Champions League qualification one immediate response comes to mind. ‘You can say that again.’
Emery’s work at Villa Park has been remarkable - transformational - and maybe, just maybe has set the Birmingham club on a path to glory that it’s sought for almost three decades.
For much of that time, it’s not been so much of a route to success during that as heading up a series of cul-de-sacs. Various managers, chief executives and owners haven’t tried their best. But when the current paymasters looked around for Gerrard’s replacement, they needed to present a project to a man that was deemed surplus at PSG for his failure to win the Champions League.
Yes, his sacking was that harsh and the opportunity at Villa that good. From day one - a victory over Manchester United at Villa Park - itself a rarity against the club’s modern-day bogey team - Emery has breezed through the place with the determination of a man who will not be denied his destiny.
He has brought intensity where there was none, know-how where there was little, concentration where there was only distraction and ratcheted up the drive at Villa Park the like of which has never before been seen. Emery’s position - from that very first victory - has been ‘I am going on this journey - yes, I will go on this journey - and if you’re good enough, focused enough and ambitious enough…come with me.’ And a group of underperforming players jumped at the chance.
He provided clarity. For instance, he gave Leon Bailey licence to cause havoc against United in his first game. And if there is one player who embodies all of the attention to focus and re-kindled ambition, it’s Bailey. But he’s not the only one.
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Ezri Konsa gave an insight into Emery’s methods as Villa motored from the fringes of the relegation zone last season into European competition. Asked how Emery had improved standards, the newly-capped England international said: ‘He’s told me I don’t need to panic in possession.
That the Spaniard sensed Konsa was jumpy when he had the ball. Little details, confidence-builders - and on the back of victories such attention to detail becomes the stuff of legend.
Tyrone Mings was another. He revealed the manager’s love of meetings and how one-to-ones with the coaching staff had brought him on. But perhaps Emery recognised - just like he did using that high line of defence that so many clubs have struggled to break down - that he did have some very good players in that dressing room.
Keeper Emi Martinez, in particular, a hero at Villa Park and a pantomime villain anywhere else is as good as there is in the Premier League. Konsa has been a model of consistency wherever he plays. Douglas Luiz is a proper central midfielder, John McGinn sets the standard in the dressing room as club skipper and then there’s Ollie Watkins.
The majority of those above would now breeze into any top six side. That’s not always been the case at Villa Park. But it is Watkins around whom Emery has built this success story.
It would be fitting if the England international were to become the first since Peter Withe over 30 years ago to break Villa's 20-goal Premier League barrier.
The Devonian did admit that having the spectre of Danny Ings hovering over his shoulder had not been a welcome one. That he didn’t thrive on the competition. That he needed to be left alone.
And Emery has done exactly that. He brought in Jhon Duran - in case Watkins - who has has an excellent injury record - fell down a rabbit hole. But he hasn’t. He’s been in the form of his life. In terms of assists and goals, if the striker hadn’t been as prolific, none of this would have happened.
And one other point - as I heard it discussed recently - Emery isn’t going anywhere. He has complete autonomy at Villa Park. He has his backroom team, his sporting director, direct access to owners who will - and can - give him everything he wants.
Managers crave control. Emery has that. And he has produced results. Villa are in the Champions League. Not Ange Postecoglou’s faux early-season pretenders from north London whose star fizzled out almost as quickly as it burst into life.
Not the monied elite from Chelsea’s Kings Road. Not arguably the world's biggest football club, Manchester United. Villa - a sizeable entity in their own right - whose ambitions match those above. And, next season at least, thanks to Emery are in a position to deliver some of them.
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