Ambitious Unai Emery has made no apologies for wanting to chase down the Premier League elite and win major silverware during his time as Aston Villa manager. Emery has already carried out a sterling, transformative job during his 18 months at the Villa helm and the club are on course to bring Champions League football to Villa Park next term.
The year on year progress is in plain sight; Villa secured Europa Conference League football on the final day of last season, having been dragged back from the brink of a relegation scrap by Emery upon his appointment in October 2022. This term, they're flying high in fourth, in a position envied by Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, while they remain strong contenders to lift the Conference League trophy next month.
Emery, of course, is well-versed in what it takes to emerge triumphant from competitions; he's lifted the Europa League four times with Sevilla and Villarreal and completed a domestic treble while in charge of Paris Saint-Germain in 2018. He works now from his Bodymoor Heath base plotting more silverware, with the intention of not allowing his decorated managerial career, littered with trophies, to dry up.
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"The time is passing so quick, but it's been fantastic," he told beIN Sports Asia. "We are progressively getting better and developing everything like we wanted to, when I decided to come here and take this challenge with Nassef, Wes Edens and Aston Villa. My target was, and is still, to be in Europe - to be in the Conference League, Europa League, Champions League. At the end, my target is to be with Aston Villa in the Champions League.
"Then, try to be contenders for a trophy - we are now, in Europe with the Conference League, but also in England. I want the hardest challenges I can face, and to get trophies and dream, maybe, of even the most important trophies for us, to win the Premier League, to win the Europa League or to win the Champions League. We have to be demanding, but we have to be realistic.
"Then to fight with the best teams in the Premier League, each year, like Manchester City, Liverpool, now Arsenal, two years ago Chelsea, three years ago Tottenham - they weren't, so long ago, in the final of the Champions League. They're some of the best teams in the world - they want to win the Premier League and then they want to win in Europe. Our level, now, is not enough to fight for the Premier League - but of course, I want to increase our level.
"I want to increase our structure and our possibilities economically, to get more money to be closer to where the other teams are, who are fighting for the Premier League. I am realistic but ambitious and sometimes it's difficult to be both. Sometimes you have to break something - like here, with Leicester, who won the Premier League - but I want to be consistent."
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