Unai Emery makes his return to the Champions League on Tuesday and is fully focused on delivering more memories with Aston Villa 2.0.
The Spaniard remains completely committed to Villa’s rebuilding job and, while most observers are predicting a difficult season, the club’s meticulous manager is feeling energised as he begins a new cycle.
Villa are back in Europe’s elite competition with a drastically reshaped squad, with six stars from last season’s Europa League final starting XI sold this summer.
While bringing the average age of the squad down was always the plan, losing proven internationals Morgan Rogers, Emiliano Martínez, Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Youri Tielemans was not expected in one summer.
It has brought Villa’s revamping of the squad forward by at least 12 months, with more than £250m having been invested to assemble an exciting, young new team for the future.
Highly regarded talents such as Johan Manzambi, Ibrahim Mbaye and Zion Suzuki have arrived this summer, supplementing teenagers already at the club in Brian Madjo and George Hemmings.
Nicolas Jackson was the club’s record signing from Chelsea, after a lengthy pursuit by Emery, with the deal potentially worth up to £65m.
With so much upheaval, coupled with Villa’s slow start to the season, it has been suggested that this could be end of the fairy tale. Yet Emery has been here before, and this is why he is embracing the challenge ahead.
At both Valencia and Sevilla he lost star players every year, but repeatedly defied the odds to reconstruct successful teams.
He was written off almost every summer, though history suggests that with patience and time he can deliver. That is why Villa’s hierarchy and players feel comfortable despite so many changes.
Emery is also feeling positive about this new project. He has been restricted by financial regulations – most pertinently the squad cost ratio rules – but walking away has never been a consideration.
Perhaps the start of a new era has also reinvigorated him as he prepares for the return of Champions League football to Villa Park.
Villa are now striving for stability and in talks with a number of players over new contracts.
Ross Barkley, Ian Maatsen, Pau Torres, Emiliano Buendía, Victor Lindelof and Amadou Onana (who is injured and will not return until next year) are all expected to agree fresh terms in the near future.
Emery will also rely heavily on the experience of talismanic captain John McGinn to help settle the club down after such a tumultuous period.
Ahead of their opening Champions League match at Club Brugge on Tuesday, Emery said: “It is a new chapter and Europe is something fantastic.
“When we started the project here, the vision we had was in our highest expectation, even maybe was not to be in Europe four years in a row, with two in Champions League.
“It was very difficult when we started together working, but it was our vision with the owners and as well, we set the standard high with the players to try to be there, and we are.
“Last year, we started so poor, and progressively, we were improving, and we finished the season fantastic, but to repeat it is not easy.”
Villa are still waiting for lift-off this season. They have not scored a goal in the Premier League yet, managing only one shot on target.
Their slow start mirrors that of last season, when Villa failed to win in their opening six games, but has not been unexpected.
Before last month’s Super Cup game against Paris St-Germain, Emery had warned that it could take time to click after so many changes.
Tuesday will be their first Champions League game since the thrilling quarter-final second leg against PSG in April 2025, when they came close to beating the eventual winners over two legs. Only five of that starting XI now remain.
Buendía said: “I’ve been here for five years and the captain [McGinn], Tyrone [Mings] and other players, we were here when the staff came here.
“I think our job with the new players is to help them settle. The structure is there – it doesn’t matter how many players change from one season to another, our structure is clear.
“These players are in a great place to develop and improve. They are good players in the present, and they can be huge players in the future for the next few years at the club.”
Manzambi, the £51m signing from Freiburg, is yet to play after sustaining a knee injury at the World Cup with Switzerland, but could be available for this weekend’s game at home to Nottingham Forest.
Leon Goretzka, a free transfer signing after leaving Bayern Munich, will not be available until after the international break.
Villa face Brugge for the fourth time in under two years, after meeting in the 2024-25 Champions League opening phase and then the knockout rounds.
Probable Villa team Suzuki; Cash, Lindelof, Torres, Maatsen; Kamara, Gomes; McGinn, Buendía, Hemmings; Jackson.