Aston Villa 2-1 Nottingham Forest: How Unai Emery has transformed Villa

Emery’s arrival at Villa Park in 2022 marked a new chapter for the club.

He brought with him six backroom staff, with many of the old guard departing, and then Monchi arrived as president of football operations in June 2023 – having previously worked with Emery at Sevilla, winning three Europa League titles together.

Emery has certainly been backed in the transfer market, spending about £295m on 23 signings over the past four windows – including the impressive loan captures of Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio.

It has not all been plain sailing though, with the club being held back by the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), having to raise funds in the summer by selling academy graduates Omari Kellyman and Tim Iroegbunam, as well as Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby for significant money.

With a net transfer spend of about £15m, the club’s recruitment has been even more impressive.

Spanish football expert and Emery biographer Guillem Balague explains how the Villa boss has stuck rigidly to his recruitment plan.

“He has always endeavoured to bring in and play the type of players that possessed the necessary characteristics and shared his vision as to how the game should be played,” he said.

“He has sold his vision of this future Aston Villa to the fans and has had to educate them in his ideas, showing them that the success they can achieve should come along with the implementation of a cultured, measured passing game and not merely one that relies on the playing of a non-stop 100mph box-to-box game.”

But what else has Emery brought, away from recruitment and the club’s playing style?

Stories emerged of how he had compiled dossiers on each player before joining Villa, and how he can often be seen leaving the club’s Bodymoor Heath training ground late into the night.

Balague described how he is also very big on individual coaching, so his players all get clips on their direct opponent.

His attention to detail is a characteristic that is spoken about a lot, as is his tactical brain.

“What separates good managers from great managers is that he has a great way of playing, but his in-game management is so amazing as well,” Villa defender Tyrone Mings told Ben Foster’s Fozcast podcast.

Midfielder John McGinn added to BBC Sport: “No matter what happens until now and whenever he leaves – we hope it’s never – he will certainly go down as one of our club’s greatest managers.”