Man Utd fans furious at ‘grim’ realisation how far Aston Villa have come while they’ve gone backwards under Erik ten Hag
MANCHESTER UNITED fans were left licking their already gaping wounds on Wednesday night – despite the fact the team didn’t even play.
Sorry fans of the Red Devils are still hurting from last weekend’s battering by Tottenham, a defeat which continued the years-long trend of woefulness at Old Trafford.
In contrast, Aston Villa are flying high.
And it’s not gone unnoticed by the Old Trafford faithful who have noted the differing impacts their respective managers have made having taken over at a similar time.
The Villans recorded a famous 1-0 win over German giants Bayern Munich last night thanks to a sensational second-half strike from Jhon Duran.
It was their second outing in Europe’s elite club competition since 1983
Their downing of Bayern – which will go down in club history – is so far, the pinnacle of Unai Emery‘s reign at Villa Park.
And it’s capped off a remarkable turnaround from the Spaniard, who arrived with the club in tatters.
In just two years, Emery has taken Villa from the brink of relegation to rubbing shoulders with and beating Europe’s elite.
And the success he’s brought hasn’t gone unnoticed by United fans, many of whom believe their club has gone BACKWARDS during Ten Hag’s reign.
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How Unai Emery has transformed Aston Villa
By Graeme Bryce
ASTON VILLA suspected they were on to a winner when they enticed four-times Europa League king Unai Emery away from Villarreal in October 2022.
They will certainly never bag a bigger bargain than the £5.2million compensation fee they paid the La Liga side for their Spanish tactical genius.
Emery started the way he meant to continue at Villa, ironically beating Sunday’s opponents Manchester United 3-1 on his debut – to record Villa’s first home Premier League victory over United since August 1995!
And he has continued smashing records and setting new standards ever since, culminating in Wednesday’s incredible win over six-times European champions Bayern Munich.
Emery credits his Basque upbringing for his workaholic nature and he is first into Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training base before 8am every morning – and he is usually the last there, switching the lights off when he leaves around 9pm most nights.
A Villa insider once summed it up by saying: “It’s not unusual for managers to spend long hours at the training ground, chatting to staff, having cups of coffee. Unai is different, he doesn’t do down-time, it’s full on work-mode from the minute he arrives to the minute he leaves.”
On away trips Emery opens his laptop as soon as he boards the team coach and starts analysing his own team’s performance as well as the opposition.
“He will watch all of our games seven or eight times and does the same for our opponents,” says Villa’s Director of Football Operations, Damian Vidagany – one of 23 Spaniards Emery has taken with him to Villa, including the world-famous transfer guru Monchi.
Emery trusts Monchi to supply the talent he needs from £50million record signing Amadou Onana to £8million bargain-buy Morgan Rogers and then he improves them beyond recognition.
Lesser managers would have written hotheaded hitman Jhon Duran off as a troublemaker – cut their losses and flogged him this summer after a series of high-profile PR gaffes.
But Emery was cold and clinical and asked himself one question – does the kid have any worth to me? Once he decided he did, he put an arm round the youngster and talked him through how he would transform him into one of the world’s great strikers.
Now the smile is back on Duran’s face, never more so than after his stunning winner against Bayern, which underlined Emery’s extraordinary man-management skills.
Training is meticulous and repetitive until players get the drill with the aid of constant video reminders, both collectively and individually, while his army of coaches work tirelessly on improving individual players’ skill-sets and game intelligence with tailor-made sessions.
Against Bayern Emery not only set Villa up brilliantly defensively to frustrate the Bavarian giants, who failed to score for the first time this season.
He also hammered home over and over again verbally and visually with video clips, Manuel Neuer’s tendency to stray miles off his goal line in his sweeper-keeper role.
Jhon Duran’s first-time finish to send the ball soaring over a stranded Neuer was pure genius – but the seed to try such an outrageous attempt was planted in his head by another genius.
Take a bow, Unai Emery!
Several took to X to lament the Ten Hag era, which began a mere six months before Emery took charge of Villa.
One frustrated supporter wrote: “Gerrard had Villa in the relegation zone and they sacked and replaced him with Emery 3 months into ten Hag being at United.
“Today Villa, are playing Bayern in the Champions League and I’m still seeing ten Hag quotes bragging about winning an FA Cup & Carabao Cup. Grim.”
Another said: “Ineos are not serious. United hierarchy is not serious.
“Why this j***water is still at post baffles me and he’s talking loftily.”
And another said: “A good manager vs a bad one.
“A bad one always have excuses while a good one uses what he have.”
One remarked: “Emery is an insane coach.”
Defiant Ten Hag
Last Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Tottenham has ramped up the pressure on Ten Hag, who remains bullish on the prospect of being given his marching orders.
He told Sky Sports: “We are going to make a success from the season.
“Nothing is easy, but this is nothing for me to panic about.
“We can sort [the problems] out, this team can sort this out.”
When asked if he’s fearing the sack, the defiant Dutchman said: “I’m not thinking about it, I’m not anxious.
“We created a togetherness in the summer with the ownership and the leadership.
“We made this agreement, and we were all behind it.
“We know the strategy [is to bring in] young players in a transition period.
“They also know in May in all my last six seasons there were always trophies and that is what we are aiming for.”
Ten Hag will be hoping his troops will be able to alleviate some of the pressure on his shoulders tonight when they face Porto in their second Europa League outing of the season.
Things don’t get any easier after that – Manchester United’s next Premier League game is on Sunday away to Emery’s Aston Villa.