Unai Emery gathered his Aston Villa players in a circle around him and stood on the centre spot. As they prepared for their final training session at Tupras Stadium in the early-evening Istanbul sunshine, Emery needed to know they were ready.
The drill itself was relatively light – an 11-a-side match at low intensity – but Emery had wanted to look each player in the eye and see they were focused on the challenge ahead.
One of Emery’s great bugbears is players who cannot make an impact from the bench. He does not understand why some sulk when left out of the starting XI, when they should be concentrating on delivering during the game. Did all his players – not just the starters – have the fire in their eyes? Tonight he had his answer – a fifth Europa League title for the Spanish coach and the first for Villa, whose win over Freiburg ended a 30-year trophy drought.
With about 11,000 Villa fans in the stands, many more around Istanbul and the Prince of Wales offering his congratulations, it was a night for the squad and staff to remember for the rest of their lives. These successes never happen at random, especially with Emery in charge. Yet in the build-up to Aston Villa’s chaotic 4-3 win over Sunderland on April 19 the players started to sense something was shifting ever so slightly.
All season Emery has drummed into them a single message: the Premier League is the priority. First, it was simply about moving up the table after Villa’s dreadful start to the campaign had Emery worrying about relegation. Close to Christmas, an unlikely title challenged flickered before injuries extinguished it. After that, a top-five finish became the best route to the Champions League.
Yet as the season finale approached, there was a mood shift. Though Emery was as intense as ever at Bodymoor Heath as Villa moved into the key phase of the campaign, Villa sources sensed the lure of a first trophy since 1996 was at least on equal footing with the league campaign.
Unai Emery is across every detail as manager of Aston Villa who he has led to their first trophy for 30 years
In Villa’s final training session before the final Emery looked every player in the eye to see if they were ready for the challenge ahead
Though they had squeezed over the line against Sunderland thanks to a last-minute winner from Tammy Abraham, Emery had made changes with the game still in the balance. Taking off skipper John McGinn and sending on the erratic Jadon Sancho saw Villa let a 3-1 lead slip and nearly cost them the win.
Then there was the bizarre 2-1 home defeat by Tottenham, three days after the first leg of their Europa League semi-final first leg defeat at Nottingham Forest. Villa could have all-but sealed Champions League qualification against relegation-threatened Spurs, but Emery made several changes and was strangely passive on the touchline.
We now see why. Once Villa had swatted aside Bologna in the quarter-finals, Emery could smell a fifth Europa League title and was prepared to risk a little more to achieve it. Against Freiburg here, everything he planned paid off.
It is safe to assume Villa will not get much rest tonight but high-quality sleep has been at the heart of this campaign. In previous seasons, Villa would return from European away fixtures the day after the game, even completing a recovery session at the hotel overseas before catching their flight.
Now work has been completed on a 40-room ‘player hotel’ at the club’s training ground, meaning Villa can fly back straight after the game, sleep at Bodymoor and do their recovery work there the following day. This is the best of both worlds: train at their base, while also enjoying a couple of hours’ extra rest. Villa have also consulted sleep experts. It’s all about the fine margins.
When he agreed to sign for Villa, Emery was surprised the club did not have overnight accommodation and urged them to build some. The project was completed late last year and Villa’s results after European games this season have been very impressive. Before the Final, Villa had won four and drawn one of their league fixtures that followed overseas trips, losing only once.
Many managers dislike dwelling on the past, especially defeats. Emery is the opposite. Throughout his discussions with the squad, he refers constantly to previous games, especially in Europe. In the build-up to this match, he will have mentioned Villa’s Conference League defeat at Legia Warsaw three years ago, or the Champions League loss at Monaco in January 2025 that so enraged him. ‘Remember where we were. Remember the journey we have been on,’ is a constant refrain.
Emery still uses much of the software he relied on in earlier days, eschewing more modern programmes. He will single-handedly compress up to eight hours’ footage into clips lasting less than an hour combined.
Sometimes these will be for individual meetings, such as the one with McGinn before the fixture with Nottingham Forest in January, when he urged the Scot to find attacking positions more often. Sure enough, McGinn scored twice in a 3-1 win and has hit double figures for goals in a season for the first time since joining Villa in 2018.
Emery urged John McGinn to find attacking positions more often. Sure enough, McGinn has his best goal tally since joining Villa in 2018
This is Emery’s secret: hard work. Though warm and respectful, he is not one who naturally commands a room
The Freiburg meetings began in earnest on Monday, focusing mainly on the Germans’ set-piece prowess and coach Julian Schuster’s preference for man-to-man marking all over the pitch. Villa were quietly confident that this style would play into their hands.
Emery has been similarly exhaustive when reviewing games. Whereas other managers may focus on the poor marking at a corner that led to a goal, Emery is likely to rewind the tape more than a minute and identify the player who received the ball on his weaker foot. He will then explain how this set off the chain reaction that led to the corner.
‘He is from a family of serious, responsible people,’ says Guillem Balague, who wrote Rise of the Villans, a chronicle of the Emery era. ‘In the Basque Country, there are a lot of very talented, hard-working people so to get ahead you have to be better. Because he wasn’t a top player, perhaps there is also a bit of an inferiority complex.
‘He has confidence in his methods but he has doubts, too. He knows he needs to analyse teams and trends so, for example, this season he’ll have been watching Racing Santander in the Spanish second division, because they’re offering a different idea of football.’
Villa stars compare playing for Emery to being an elite chess player. The analysis is so deep that at the start of any game they know their opening moves off pat.
This is Emery’s secret: hard work. Though warm and respectful, he is not one who naturally commands a room. He can appear shy, even socially awkward. If he worked in your office, he would not be a dominant personality. Don’t mistake that for insecurity, though. Everyone who works at Villa calls Emery ‘Boss’. Nobody should have any doubt about who is in charge.
Making his return to English football three years after he was sacked by Arsenal in 2019, Emery was sitting at the top table in the sumptuous Oak Room at Villa Park, a replica of the European Cup in a glass case over his shoulder.
‘My dream is to win a trophy with Villa,’ he said. ‘That is my personal challenge at the beginning, and my second dream could be to play in Europe.’ At the time, Villa were flirting with the bottom three but Emery was already thinking bigger.
Villa stars compare playing for Emery to being an elite chess player. The analysis is so deep that at the start of any game they know their opening moves off pat
Trophies have always made Emery tick and if they are European ones, so much the better
Trophies have always made Emery tick and if they are European ones, so much the better. Emery is one of the finest coaches of his era but he remains a huge football fan at heart. The day before Villa met Ajax in the Europa Conference League in March 2024, Emery paused on the way to his media duties to look at the pictures of great Ajax players on the walls, even taking a few photos.
As Villa progressed to the Champions League quarter-finals in 2024-25, Emery, director of football Damian Vidagany and former transfer chief Monchi would pose for a group photo on the touchline away from home two hours before kick-off.
Even though Monchi has now been replaced by Roberto Olabe, there will be plenty more chances for photos on Champions League touchlines next season. Emery wants to start 2026-27 with a squad he believes can win it.
Another testing summer awaits, though. Villa likely face another UEFA penalty – European football’s governing body rules that football costs should not exceed 70 per cent of overall revenue. The club will have a tough time to meet that and could be fined again but they remain exasperated at the regulations.
The Premier League set the football cost limit at 85 per cent, yet with Villa competing in Europe, they will have to cut their cloth. To Villa, it feels as though they are being punished for success.
Emery’s trusted scout Alberto Benito has been assessing options, with Olabe also scouring the world for young players who could make the club money in future. This was probably the last dance for this squad – Daily Mail Sport understands Villa will listen to offers for Morgan Rogers, valued at about £80million.
Aston Villa may sell goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez in the summer as the Argentinian would fetch a tidy profit
And Daily Mail Sport understands Villa will listen to offers for Morgan Rogers, valued at about £80million, in the summer
Youri Tielemans arrived on a free transfer and would generate a tidy profit, as would Emi Martinez. Those two are the club’s highest earners and their departure – though not guaranteed – would certainly please the number bods at UEFA. Leon Bailey will surely be moved on and Abraham faces a battle to prove he can be reliable back-up for Ollie Watkins.
Would Villa sell him just a few months after signing him? Put it this way: Villa bought Donyell Malen in January 2025 and in the next window, they were prepared to let him move to West Ham in order to sign Lucas Paqueta.
Villa are interested in Manchester City goalkeeper James Trafford and Paris Saint-Germain winger Ibrahim Mbaye, though the latter may cost too much. Emery is looking for attackers who can play across the front line, especially wide.
It will be another busy time for Emery, and his indefatigable right-hand man Vidagany, one of the Premier League’s most colourful characters. Tonight, though, they deserve to party.
