Unai Emery relishing Aston Villa rebuild despite transfer restrictions

Unai Emery says he is enjoying the challenge of rebuilding Aston Villa with a limited budget, even though he would welcome the opportunity to sign some of the world’s best players.

Villa have made significant progress since Emery took charge four years ago, winning a European trophy and qualifying for the Champions League twice. However, financial restrictions have continued to influence their recruitment and squad planning.

The club underwent a particularly substantial reshaping during the summer, with six important players, including Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Digne, Emi Martinez and Ezri Konsa, departing or being replaced.

Villa responded by focusing on younger players and generally less expensive recruits. Zion Suzuki has arguably improved the goalkeeping options, while Nicolas Jackson has impressed since taking over from Watkins. Joao Gomes and Johan Manzambi have also made promising contributions.

Emery believes this season’s progress has been especially satisfying because of the scale of the changes made to his squad.

“More than in the last year even,” said Emery. “We are building a team in a successful way in the first year, but we did not change the squad so much.

“We had a lot of challenges and I was enjoying those good performances, but this year especially more because we changed more than normal.

“We have a lot of players to understand everything, connecting with their skills and style of play to be strong and be closer to winning.

“How we have won against Fenerbahce, but repeating at the beginning of the press conference, we have a lot of work to do and to improve.”

Villa’s transfer activity has been shaped by the need to sell players each year, although Emery said the club has also continued to invest in players with potential.

“Every year we needed to sell some players, but we have bought players too, with potential. This summer was a little bit different; we sold more than we usually do,” he added.

“We were buying younger and more players than we did before. That needs time to get them to understand our demands.”

Rather than viewing the restrictions as a source of frustration, Emery described the process of developing the squad as one he finds rewarding.

“But I’m not frustrated. I like to build teams, to watch them individually and collectively to see how they progress. I’d like sometimes to buy the best players in the world! But I accept how we are doing and what is our capacity.

“But the club is doing a huge amount of effort in a lot of things in our budget. The next step forward is Villa Park and the 50,000 capacity. We are moving in the right direction, trying to be intelligent and work maybe even harder than other clubs to exploit our young players, with their talent, but I like it.”