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