Two years ago, during Aston Villa’s first European adventure under Unai Emery, Vicente Iborra was asked about a manager he knows better than most. “He is a coach that takes into consideration every detail which might happen in the match,” said Iborra, then of Olympiakos. Iborra has winner’s medals from all four of Emery’s Europa League triumphs – three on the spin with Sevilla, the last with Villarreal five years ago – before which the injured midfielder delivered a stirring dressing-room speech. “You have the chance to make a lot of people happy,” he said, by way of opening gambit.
On Wednesday, against Freiburg, Emery hopes to lift the trophy for a record-extending fifth time. Before Villa beat Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals, Vítor Pereira spoke on behalf of the masses when he called Emery the king of the Europa League. This is Emery’s sixth final, he’s only lost one, and he’s seeking his first silverware with Villa.
This week Iborra’s words feel more pertinent than ever: “I have learned many things from Mr Emery, but one thing I will never forget from him is that, in order to find yourself in a final, in order to experience this great moment in your lifetime, one truly has to want that, one has to long for it.”
Pau Torres was part of the Villarreal side that prevailed on penalties against Manchester United in 2021 and is in line to start for Villa on Wednesday. Emery has shared with his players the value of victory and his appetite for No 5. “For us to win a trophy is important,” Torres says. “For the club to be in Europe every year is important for the financial rules, for the prestige of the club, but at the end if you don’t win a trophy for the fans, it’s like: ‘OK, you did some really, really good seasons, but we wanted more.’ I think for the fans these are the most important things: to enjoy these games, these moments, and for those who can go, the trip to Istanbul. Hopefully we can celebrate together on Wednesday night … and Thursday.”
It is worth remembering quite how long this fire has burned inside Emery, who a couple of years ago reached the 1,000-game milestone as a manager. On touchdown at Villa Park three and a half years ago, Emery spelled out his desire to win a trophy and restore the club to European competition. Villa were 16th in the Premier League, three points off the bottom. In their previous three seasons they had finished 17th, 11th and 14th. Emery steered Villa to seventh after a transformative first six months. Since then they have finished fourth and sixth, this their third successive season in Europe. This campaign they will finish fourth or fifth, surely Emery’s most impressive achievement, even if he was somehow overlooked for the Premier League’s manager of the season award.
It is worth recalling quite how badly this season started. Villa won none of their opening six matches. The dependable right-back Matty Cash scored Villa’s first league goal, a speculative effort in a draw at Sunderland, with October fast approaching. At that point Emery was worried about relegation and a Champions League return felt fanciful. It was fitting, then, that it was a few days later in the Europa League where Villa put wheels in motion to reach the showpiece here. Villa’s first win came at home to Bologna. Emery and his staff doubled down on their efforts, asking the squad to convene before noon on game day for a meeting, with kick-off more than eight hours away.
Villa began their preparations for Freiburg on Monday, training at their Bodymoor Heath base before flying to Turkey in the afternoon. On the grass, Emery is hands-on, often physically moving players like mannequins to emphasise his point. Players have grown accustomed to lengthy video analysis sessions. Cash explains how Emery will debrief the second leg against Forest before tackling their final opponents.
“That will be a good hour and a half, I reckon,” Cash says. “Then Freiburg, that’ll probably be two hours. With what we’ve got to play for, I think we’d have a three-hour meeting just to get over the line. It’s part of our routine now; it’s just like going to work: you know you’re going to have meetings, analysis.”
Do the players ever see another side to Emery? “Not really, no,” Cash says. “He’s very focused – sometimes the day after games he has a laugh and stuff, but the majority of the time he is very focused and he’s just: work, work, work. The times we’ve qualified for Europe before, we’ve had a little party or whatever, and then you see him smiling a little bit more, letting his hair down and not talking about football as much. But when we’ve got big, important games coming up, the analysis and the detail goes up a notch. He is very demanding of his players and his coaches.”
Emery is always an animated figure on the touchline but strives to be calm amid perceived crisis. Does he demand even more after victories? “Yeah, definitely,” says Villa’s influential midfielder Youri Tielemans, laughing. “It’s weird because sometimes when we come into the changing room at half-time, we feel like we’re having a bad game and he’s there to cheer us up, and not put us down even more than what we are. For example, recently at half-time against Tottenham, we didn’t compete at all with them, we were having a bad day, a bad game, and he was there to put us back with both feet on the ground to say: ‘Listen, we are where we are because of our consistency’ and no matter what happens he said he is proud of us. That’s his message to cheer us up and make sure that we never give up.”
On Saturday morning, hours after Villa cemented a Champions League place courtesy of a resounding victory over Liverpool, Emery held a meeting touching on the journey they have lived together as a group. He often leans into the manner in which they pushed Paris Saint-Germain all the way in last season’s Champions League quarter-finals. With one breath he congratulated his players on their latest achievement, with the next he urged them to maintain their level, to go down in history. Last week Peter Withe, Villa’s match-winner in the 1982 European Cup final, observed training and met the squad. “We will face this final in our best moment in the season,” Torres says.
If Villa win their first trophy for 30 years, Emery and his players will claim the status of immortals. Cash says: “I was saying to my friends on Friday: ‘If you want any man to be leading you into a Europa League final, it’s him, because he’s done it so many times.’ If you look at what we have gone through over the last few years, I think the only thing missing is a trophy.”