Greetings,
It’s been a while. We may have skipped Villa’s dodgy start, but let’s get going again with this newsletter, now it seems Unai Emery and the team are back in business and setting up a season full of possibilities.
I will now endeavour to get some momentum going and make this newsletter a lot more frequent. I will be catching up on some more serious stuff in the next one, as there’s a venture about to launch that all Villa supporters can get involved in. First of all, though, let’s catch up on a couple of things…
Being Unai Emery
You may have seen that a book called The Rise of the Villains – Inside Unai Emery’s Aston Villa Revolution has been released, which was written by Guillem Balagué, the author of both the official biographies of Ronaldo and Messi, to name just two of his books.
A personal friend of Emery, with a lot of history with some of Emery’s family members and backroom staff, Guillem had excellent access to be a fly-on-the-wall at Bodymoor Heath and Villa Park, and beyond that to more private realms.
Since this was more than a by-the-numbers biography and retelling of Villa’s last season, I made the effort of travelling to see Guillem at the home of Biggleswade United (near Cambridge Way), the ninth-tier non-league club that Balagué is the chairman of. Our wide-ranging discussion on the inner workings of Emery and the transformation of Villa under him was actually recorded in the middle of the Biggleswade United dressing room.
Below is a short extract from our chat, while the audio of our full discussion that lasted over an hour can be found on My Old Man Said podcast here
Guillem Balagué Interview Extract
David Michael: I met the Villa owners within the first week of them taking over Villa, when they met the Fan Advisory Board. I asked Wes [Edens] why Villa? Considering he had earlier been interested in Inter Miami with David Beckham. His first two words were “Champions League.” So that’s their aim and the thing that marries with that is Unai’s dream to win the Champions League. He’s taken Villa and already stitched them back to their early eighties European Cup roots - beating Bayern, revisiting Rotterdam - but, in terms of Villa, how patient is he now for his goal?
Guillem Balagué: This summer was a realisation for everyone that boundaries had been pushed and you have to take a step back. You still have to win, maintain standards, keep demands high - even when you step back. The tension, I think, in the camp was: what happens now? They knew they couldn’t get the signings wrong. Every choice mattered.
DM: Some supporters wonder why Emery takes so long to use new signings. You spend good money, fans expect them straight in. Then they see other club’s new signings hit the ground running.
GB: But Villa play positional football. Every space has a role, obligations, responsibilities. If you throw in two new players who don’t yet understand the timing - when to press, when to move - the whole thing collapses. So you teach them. It’s about education. You can’t just buy players and expect them to know.
DM: The John Duran story really stood out [in the book] - this fascinating clash of Emery’s scientific positional football plan meets this wild maverick meteorite. Should there be more room for that kind of chaos that at times rescued Villa in big moments?
GB: Emery always has one maverick. Always. He loves it. I was glad the Duran story happened because it showed the other side of him. Duran represents what fans love - unpredictability, genius, the guy who makes you win from nowhere. Rock and roll football. And Unai embraces that, even if it clashes with the system.
DM: I’ve heard you play down silverware and winning things, with you putting the onus on football being about the memories and the journey, which is obviously a big part of it, but at a base level, silverware is how success is validated, isn’t it?
GB: In the eyes of the fans, yes. Perhaps, in the eyes of Unai - not so much.
DM: But you’ve also got the owners. When they bought Villa, they were standing on the centre circle with the European Cup (Champions League) - which basically sends the signal of what their intentions are.
GB: Yes, but they are in a rise process, call it whatever you want - where if silverware arrives, brilliant. But the target is to keep growing, to keep being in Europe, to get better players to allow you to do that in an easier way. You cannot stop. That’s the thing about Aston Villa. You cannot stop growing. You have to keep growing, even if it’s difficult.
You can buy Guillem’s book Rise of the Villans at a discount here
Check out our in-depth interview here
Aston Villa Opera
With the opportunities new technology brings, I’ve always been keen to use it to evolve and transcend football media through MOMS. I also strive to fuse in my background and interest in film and music whenever possible.
Going back a few years, when talk increasingly built to the rising cost of English football and how it was losing its working-class soul, comparisons to the price of going to the opera were often made - as if that were the sport of the bourgeois.
Now, Premier League and European match prices have not only matched but often surpassed the opera - so, in a nod to that irony, and mainly because the drama of opera offers up an entertaining juxtaposition with the swearing and bluntness of football chants, I’ve released the first couple of Villa operatic adaptations: the Villa version of the My Old Man chant (naturally), and an older rendition of Holte Enders in the Sky.
They’ll be more to come - you can drop any requests in the comments.
You can follow the operatic journey and listen on Spotify here or any streaming platform.
My Old Man Said Opera
Holte Enders in the Sky (Traditional Verse Aria)
PS - have you heard the new in-house band on the MOMS podcast? Check out their cracking funk/soul intro detailing Villa’s last week in this show. This is likely to be a weekly occurrence.
The Kids Are Alright
Hopefully, Aston Villa’s foray in the Champions League last season isn’t a one-off, but here’s a good deal to remember Villa’s return to Europe’s top tier and the 150th anniversary of the club. Classic Football Shirts now have the third kit in kids sizes (ages 1 to 4) at over 70% off at £14.99. Plus, you can get a further 10% off using the code MOMS10 here. They also have reduced adult sizes for all three kits from last season too.
Speak soon.
UTV
David
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