Unai Emery has offered a fascinating insight into football’s financial landscape while discussing Manchester City, with his comments on selling players to comply with regulations particularly relevant after another summer of major change at Aston Villa.
Unai Emery has never been somebody who spends too much time looking for excuses at Aston Villa, which is probably why his latest comments around Manchester City and football’s financial regulations are particularly interesting, particularly when you consider the financial restrictions Villa themselves have been trying to navigate while simultaneously attempting to compete with clubs who have traditionally operated with considerably greater spending power.
Villa supporters have become increasingly familiar with the language of financial restrictions over the last few years. PSR, UEFA regulations and more recently Squad Cost Ratio have become part of the conversation around almost every transfer window, with Villa repeatedly having to balance their desire to compete at the highest level with the financial framework they are operating within, and Emery has now offered his own perspective on that wider landscape while discussing Manchester City and the ongoing case surrounding their finances.
Speaking to Spanish outlet Diario de Sevilla, Emery said: “It’s an issue that was already known. Because we all have our restrictions, we have to sell players to comply with Financial Fair Play, we have to figure out how to draw up contracts with new people.”
That part of his answer will certainly resonate with Villa supporters because we have watched a club qualify for Europe consistently under Emery, reach the Champions League, win the Europa League and establish themselves towards the top end of the Premier League, yet rather than success simply providing the platform to keep adding to the squad, there have continually been difficult decisions required to remain within the regulations.
This summer was probably the clearest example yet. Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans and Ezri Konsa were huge parts of what Villa had become under Emery and all departed, meaning significant areas of the team effectively had to be rebuilt despite Villa coming off the back of one of the most successful seasons in the club’s modern history. That doesn't mean Villa haven't been able to spend money or improve the squad, because they have, but the process has rarely been as straightforward as simply identifying what Emery needs and going out to get it.
Emery went further when discussing the wider financial landscape, saying: “Financial Fair Play seeks a financial balance so that what you generate is spent and there isn’t inflation. Yes, many other clubs have inflated their budgets, and now it’s coming to light, and naturally there’s a decline.”
It is quite a striking comment from the Villa manager, although importantly Emery stopped short of attempting to determine Manchester City's case himself. City have appealed the Premier League Commission's findings and continue to maintain their innocence, while Emery was actually complimentary about the football they produced during Pep Guardiola's time at the club, saying the legal side was for others to determine before adding: “I feel sorry because how that team played. With Guardiola, there were times when they were unmatched.”
That distinction is important because this isn't really Emery celebrating what has happened to City or attempting to pass judgement on them himself, and what interests me far more is what his comments tell us about how he views the environment Villa have been competing in. Emery has spoken previously about the financial power of the biggest Premier League clubs and acknowledged before the Super Cup that Villa were competing with Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool despite not having their financial power “yet”.
That final word has always interested me because it tells you where Emery wants Aston Villa to go. He hasn't spent four years building Villa simply to be grateful for being around these clubs, with the intention clearly being to establish Villa alongside them, initially through outperforming clubs with greater resources on the pitch and eventually by growing the club to the point where the financial gap begins to close as well.
That is why the financial conversation surrounding Villa can be so frustrating. Nobody wants a completely unrestricted system where owners can simply spend whatever they like and Villa obviously have to operate responsibly themselves, but the regulations have undoubtedly affected the way the club has had to build its squad, with Emery's acknowledgement that players sometimes have to be sold to comply probably summing up the balancing act Villa have faced better than anything.
Villa's challenge has therefore been considerably more complicated than simply building a good football team because they have been trying to increase revenue, develop Villa Park, become Champions League regulars and remain successful enough on the pitch to accelerate that growth, while simultaneously making the difficult squad decisions required by the regulations. The fact Emery has managed to keep Villa competitive throughout that process, despite losing some hugely important players along the way, is perhaps one of the more impressive elements of what he has achieved.
Manchester City's case will ultimately be decided elsewhere and their appeal still has to run its course, which Emery was sensible enough to recognise, but his wider comments probably tell us considerably more about Aston Villa and his own thinking than they do about City. Villa have spent the last few years trying to break into football's established financial elite while operating under rules which have repeatedly forced difficult decisions just as they have started closing the gap on the pitch, and Emery's challenge has been to keep finding a way of progressing through those restrictions rather than allowing them to become an excuse for why Villa cannot go any further.
