Unai Emery
John McGinn is confident that Unai Emery will be remembered as one of Aston Villa’s greatest managers. Since joining the club in 2018, McGinn has witnessed the evolution of Aston Villa under the ownership of Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens. Emery, who is about to celebrate his two-year anniversary at the club, has led Villa through a period of significant progress. Despite injuries last season, Villa reached the Champions League semi-finals and qualified for the competition again by finishing ahead of Tottenham in fourth place. Now, Villa are currently leading the Champions League league phase table with victories against BSC Young Boys, Bayern Munich, and Bologna.
John McGinn said, “We are excited. I think the manager is the only person who does not get excited. He just focuses his full energy all the time, like he says every single day he is that demanding on us. He does not let us take our foot off the gas so we can use energy and enthusiasm, the excitement we have but his determination and intensity are unmatched. 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. He is just so driven. I have never met anyone like him. He has said to me a few times, he was an OK footballer but he wishes he had the determination and work rate he has as a manager. You feed off your leader. He is our leader and we feed off that. He is certainly improving a lot of us. There is a great feeling to the place. I know there are things we can improve on and off the pitch. We are aware of those things. Now Villa have a fully-fit squad, Emery has serious strength in depth across the team. Me and Ty spoke about it at the weekend. It was probably one of the strongest benches Villa ever had on Saturday. It only lasted three days that record because I think tonight tops it. The strength in depth is amazing. Just for Bouba, the reception he got was amazing. Ty got one when he warmed up. But Bouba is a world-class player and we are delighted to have him. If the squad is fresher we will be rotating a lot more and you just have to respect that. You want to play every game but you also want to be successful and if it means playing five minutes or 55 you just have to accept it.”
