By TOM COLLOMOSSE, FOOTBALL REPORTER
Published: | Updated:
Before billionaires Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens took control of Aston Villa in summer 2018, the club were staring into the abyss.
Villa had just lost the Championship play-off final to Fulham and facing another year without Premier League funds, the club’s financial future was uncertain.
Eight years later, Villa have qualified for the Champions League for the second year in three. In Unai Emery, they have one of the world’s best coaches.
Despite significant issues navigating Premier League and UEFA financial rules, they lifted the Europa League last season and look well-equipped to challenge for a top-five finish again this term. In Sawiris’ time, they have made two £100million sales – Jack Grealish to Manchester City for £100m in 2021, and Morgan Rogers to Chelsea for £117m last summer, while investing hugely in players and making Emery one of the world’s best-paid coaches. Villa are also taking the capacity of Villa Park past 50,000.
By any measure, this is a club on the rise and Sawiris should feel very proud of what they have achieved during his tenure.
So you can imagine his irritation when Emery, the club’s most valuable asset, is being pushed towards the Manchester United job by a high-profile pundit like Jamie Carragher, apparently because Villa is not big enough for him. That said, the post that landed on Villa’s X account at 10.16pm on Friday still took the breath away.
Aston Villa is a club on the rise and Sawiris (above) should feel very proud of what they have achieved during his tenure
Jamie Carragher has been pushing Unai Emery towards the Manchester United job on The Overlap podcast, claiming that Villa ‘will never be’ United (source: TheOverlap/YouTube)
‘Aston Villa will initiate legal action against Jamie Carragher for his unacceptable insults about the Club and its fans.
‘Aston Villa will not allow anyone to stop our ascension in English and European football. Nassef Sawiris, Chairman.’
It is unclear which ‘insults’ drove Sawiris to this step. Carragher has talked up Emery’s candidacy for United on different platforms and received the inevitable backlash from Villa supporters online. Carragher doubled down on his view on The Overlap podcast this week, in which he told ‘Aston Villa fans’ to ‘shut the f*** up.’
He continued: ‘But the reason I’m going to go back at Villa fans is I can’t believe that a manager who is so successful in the Europa League, take a player, if you’d won the Europa League three or four times (Emery has won it five times) surely you’ll then want to go for the Champions League.
‘Aston Villa will never be Manchester United. I just think he didn’t do well at PSG or Arsenal, and maybe that’s because of egos in the dressing room and that sort of thing.
‘But surely he would want that opportunity to manage a giant again. There is a chain in football, whether you like it or not.’
Villa have been mocked for this response but look at it from their point of view. The club feel that at every turn, the established order are trying to slow their progress. Consider the financial regulations that favour traditionally wealthy clubs who make money off the pitch, over those who succeed on it.
Imagine the frustration of finishing fourth in the Premier League, winning the Europa League and then having to sell six starters from the final.
Last season Villa finished fourth in the Premier League, won the Europa League and then had to sell six of their starters from the final
Threatening legal action against a pundit may look wild but it does not come from a clear blue sky. Like many of the billionaire class, Sawiris is a tough operator and has taken an increasingly hands-on role at Villa in recent years.
He drove the move to hire Emery in 2022 and he has been more and more involved in transfers. He has forged good, professional relations with some of football’s other key players, including super-agent Jorge Mendes and Chelsea chief Behdad Eghbali. Sawiris ensured Villa received a record fee for Rogers and he was also instrumental in the capture of 18-year-old winger Ibrahim Mbaye from Paris Saint-Germain last summer. His ambition for Villa is limitless.
For seasons now, Villa have operated in what Sawiris may feel is an arbitrary financial straitjacket. Now he has to listen to ex-players with significant influence telling the world that Villa can never satisfy Emery’s ambition.
Carragher is probably guilty of nothing more than expressing an opinion, however crudely he may have done so. But if Sawiris is fed up of various voices and organisations trying to put Villa back in their box, then who can blame him?
