Matt Maher on Unai Emery's contract extension at Aston Villa

Express & Star

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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judeau, I'm here with Aston Villa Reporter. It is Mr. Matt Mayer.

00:03Matt, some good news. It's been it's been a fantastic season for Aston Villa.

00:07Unai Emery has been magnificent and we have had some developments about his

00:12future today. Although obvious slight, but still some developments.

00:15Yeah, development. So he has extended his contracts. Villa have extended his

00:21contracts. They had a year option in his original deal and that option has

00:26effectively been triggered. Okay. So that he's now contracted officially

00:32through to 2027, which most people thought he was anyway. The more

00:38interesting part of this is they're going to be further talks. Well, there's

00:40more than one interesting bit of this. There's going to be further talks in the

00:43summer. Sure. Over a longer term deal. But this is all essentially come

00:49about from, you know, newspaper reports in recent days. Buying Munich, you know,

00:56we're looking at Emery. Those are reports in Germany. Lothar Matthaus

01:00basically telling Bayern Munich, you know, go and get Unai Emery. You've got

01:05Liverpool looking for a manager and they're, you know, Manchester United

01:09looking for a manager. None of these managerial searches are going to

01:11position well. Unai Emery is, you know, potentially the Premier League's

01:16manager of the season. You know, in my view, he's close to nailing that title

01:20down with what he's achieved. It's Villa, you know, they don't mess

01:25around. You know, these owners, we've seen it. We saw it when they hired Emery.

01:29Four days after, you know, sacking Gerrard. They just, you know, when

01:34they want something, they go and get it. And I think they've looked at

01:37it and felt, right, we're not even going to give anyone the chance to start

01:42sniffing around. You know, we're going to trigger this option, which will

01:46have been done with Emery's blessing. And then we'll get in the summer

01:50when we've got a bit more time and we're not in the midst of a race on, you know,

01:55on two fronts. You know, we'll have time to sit down and talk about a

02:01longer term, longer term deal. I mean, it's, you know, it's hugely, it's

02:06positive news for Villa. Look, Unai Emery is inevitably going to be linked

02:12with, of course, top jobs in the world, with top jobs. You know, he's proved

02:19himself now in the Premier League. I mean, it is ridiculous. I mean, you

02:23know, you look at the statistics at Villa, it's, it is remarkable. So the

02:30club had to, the club had to do something, or felt they had to do

02:33something. It does also suggest that they were taking, you know, because

02:40there was a lot of, perhaps at the weekend, oh, you know, it's newspaper

02:44talk about Bayern Munich. You know, it does suggest that they're taking

02:47this a bit more seriously, you know, and weren't just, weren't prepared to

02:52just sit around and let this happen.

02:55Playing devil's advocate slightly, Matt. Does it make a big difference than

03:01triggering extension? I mean, whether he's going to be linked or not in the

03:03summer?

03:03No, I just think, no, yeah, you, you, peacocking.

03:07Peacocking, you know, I mean, we've got him, you know, we'll just extend his

03:10contract for another year, it's going to be happening.

03:13Yeah, no, I think, yeah, the word, I'm not sure I'd use the word peacocking,

03:16that's interesting. I might have to file that away for at some point. Let's

03:21see if we can get that, that going.

03:23Yeah, proud as a peacock, you know.

03:25I think, I know what you're saying, but, but I think you're, I think, I think

03:28you're, you're right in that it is essentially a statement, you know, it is

03:31a, almost a, it's a hands-off.

03:34Yeah.

03:34It's a, you know, don't, like I said, don't even think about it.

03:37Correct, right, exactly.

03:38Don't, don't, don't even, don't even go there to use the 90s, 2000s phrase.

03:44Don't even go there, you know, he's our man.

03:47Yeah.

03:48You ain't going to get anywhere, so don't even bother.

03:51That, that is essentially, essentially what it is, you know, if there was any,

03:55because, you know, there was a piece written in a national newspaper on

03:58Sunday, and rightly so, look, you know, rightly so with the job that Emery's

04:03doing, he's the, is he the answer for these clubs that are looking, you know,

04:06these, these top elite clubs that are looking for managers, you know, is he

04:10the answer, you know, I'll be honest, it stunned me that he, when, when Jurgen

04:17Klopp announced his resignation, that Emery wasn't on the shortlist.

04:21You know, in the, in, in the betting markets, you know, who, who, who out

04:25there is doing a better job at the minute?

04:27So, you know, Villa, Villa can't run away from this.

04:31Um, you know, he's inevitably going to, going to be, uh, linked to jobs.

04:36So this is almost odd that them taking the initiative to a large extent and

04:40saying, look, you know, we, we're hearing the, we, we, you know, we hear this,

04:46you know, we're going to, we're going to go, you know, they are not going to

04:50just let Unai Emery.

04:52Just as a, just as an interested bystander.

04:54Do you, um, do you think, do you think Champions League football will make a

04:58difference one way or the other?

05:00Or, or it really won't?

05:01It's more, it won't hurt, will it?

05:03It won't hurt.

05:04No, it wouldn't hurt.

05:05You know, if he was to get Villa into the, you know, into the Champions League, of

05:08course, conversely, that further boosts his profile, you know, I mean, he did take

05:13Villa Real to the semifinals.

05:15Um, you know, I think Villa going into the Champions League next year, you'd think,

05:18well, Newcastle went out in the group stages this year, this year, it wouldn't be

05:22easy, but I mean, that's, you know, all bets are off with this guy, you know.

05:28Um, I mean, this is essentially, look there have been some, some additions to

05:33the, you know, but there's a lot of players there that were struggling, you

05:36know, struggling under Steven Gerrard, you know, it's, it's not, it's not all been

05:40done with, with money.

05:41You know, it's no fairy tale, Villa has spent huge amounts of money over the last

05:45five years, but actually Emery's net transfer spend isn't, isn't that much?

05:49Yeah, yeah.

05:50Um, so it's, yeah, I mean, uh, it's an incredible job, you know, it's, it's, it's

05:56Villa, basically, you know, it's, it's a hands-off, it's a, you know, and then we'll

06:00sit down in the summer and get, you know, get him on a longer term deal.

06:03That, because that's the puzzling part, because if, if, as we were saying earlier

06:07off camera, if you think this guy is the next Alex Ferguson, were you going to get

06:11him on a longer deal in three years?

06:13Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, for sure.

06:14So they've done what they can now, straight away.

06:17Yeah.

06:20And.

06:20By having themselves a bit of time and like you say.

06:22Like you say, that, that, that's your, that's your war, that's your hands off,

06:25that's your, don't even bother, we're not even going to listen.

06:28He's not going to listen, he's happy here.

06:31The other factors to bring in and what, and why there's always been this, there's

06:35been a level of confidence from Villa from the outset is that Una Emery has so much

06:41control at the club, you know, I mean, that's one of the biggest factors, if

06:46we're being honest, he's not going to get that elsewhere, you know, by Munich,

06:50where you've got early Hurness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigger sounding off in

06:54the press every weekend about, you know, the results, arguing over who should be

06:59the manager, you know, Liverpool, they've got their structure there, you're not

07:04going to, you know, he basically, he runs the show at Villa and now at some point

07:09in the future that might cause a few problems because he's, you know, at some

07:12point Una Emery will move on from Villa, but right, in the here and now, it's

07:17working rather well, isn't it, and it's going to take the club to places it's

07:20never been before, potentially, I say never been before, not been in, you know,

07:25for four decades, so, you know, it's, yeah, it's a positive move from Villa, it's

07:34proactive, proactive, proactive. Una Emery, triggered his extension today,

07:39congratulations to him and for all the Aston Villa news, make sure you log on to

07:43expressastar.com

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