Premier League: Villa optimism comes crashing down
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery during a press conference at Bodymoor Heath Training Ground, Tamworth.
The Premier League season is motoring along, with some noteworthy performances across the league. The newly promoted clubs are defying expectations and making a solid fist of retaining their place in the topflight, while some regulars of the Premier League, such as West Ham and Wolves, are struggling with relegation form as expected. But what has come as genuine surprise from the first two months of action has been the dismal start made by Villa.
Just a mere five months ago, Unai Emery’s side were beating the eventual Champions League winners, PSG, at Villa Park. But for running out of time they had the French side on the ropes and only went out on aggregate. The Birmingham side diced with a top-four finish in the Premier League before running out of steam in the end but still finished in a very credible sixth place.
The future was looking bright it seemed. But after five games of the new season, the midland outfit are on just three points, without win, and just one goal to their name after nearly 500 minutes of league football. Worse than that, they inhabit the relegation spots along with the aforementioned Wolves and Hammers.
The departure this week, of Monchi, the president of football operations at the club and a close Emery ally, seems to have added gloom to the poor start to the season. Monchi’s recent recruitments have been of questionable success and knocked a lot off earlier successes by Emery. After a very quiet summer transfer window, the wind in Villa’s sails has dropped off significantly, resulting (seemingly) in Monchi’s exit at board level, and a distinct underwhelming start on the field. As a result, the question around Emery’s future at Villa has already started to circulate.
Monchi signings: Moussa Diaby, signed for around £43m and departed after one season, record £50m buy Amadou Onana has struggled for consistency, while Youri Tielemans and Pau Torres, also expensive recruits, have also failed to impress.
Indeed, nine of the starting 11 that drew against Sunderland, last Sunday, were at the club under Steven Gerrard long before Monchi’s arrival.
Their recruitment worries stem from Uefa fining Villa £9.6m for breaching PSR (Profit and Sustainability Rules) cost controls when the club spent more than 80% of their income on wages. In turn, this meant that Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford were put out on loan in a bid to cut spending but has unfortunately also resulted in blunting their attack especially on the wings, as evident in their single league goal this season. The lack of service up front to the likes of Ollie Watkins has seen the previously prolific target man draw a number of blanks and looks off form now.
There is no doubt that PSR has seriously curtailed Villa spending ambitions, putting them at a serious disadvantage behind the big money sides of the top six clubs and the many loopholes they find on how to spend beyond their means, which is clearly unfair. But essentially, despite been recognised as a big club, Villa’s turnover does not add up to place them as competitive challengers for sustained league success in this system. Their situation needs them to always buy smarter than everyone else and to always have those acquisitions work perfectly for them.
It may not just be the woes of their transfer business that’s killed their feelgood factor. Emery has form, with previous clubs, when it comes to having a few great seasons at the start, that suddenly drop in form and success in subsequent seasons. This happened while he was at PSG, Villareal, and most notably during his time at Arsenal, where a heralded start over his beginning seasons suddenly trailed off to mid-table mediocrity and his eventual dismissal at the Emirates.
However, should Villa be thinking of wrapping Emery’s lunch in a P45, they might consider what happened while Emery was at Sevilla, he had a mid-career slump there too only to rejuvenate his form in subsequent years and famously bag three Europa League titles in a row.
Villa may have already squandered their Premier League season and may now target Emery’s favourite competition, the Europa League, where they are still the favourites to win. Emery adding a fifth Europa League crown is not beyond belief in a competition whose finalist last season were 16th and 17th in the Premier League. But the question is, will Emery get the chance to win it? He has great form in that competition, but the Premier League is the bread and butter of every side in that league. Each Premier League win and a strong finish in it earns more than any number of external cup runs. He will have to find a balance home and away to keep the Villa ownership at V Sports on his side.
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