Aston Villa have reshaped their squad and endured an uneven start to the Premier League campaign, losing three of their opening four league matches. Their form has since improved: a 2-1 victory over Manchester City on Saturday extended their winning run to four matches in all competitions.
Before Villa’s 1-0 win over Newcastle earlier this month, Emery said he was enjoying the season more than the previous one because of the scale of change. Saturday’s victory over City, meanwhile, extended Villa’s winning run to four matches in all competitions.
“More than in the last year even,” Emery said. “We are building a team in a successful way in the first year, but we did not change the squad so much. We had a lot of challenges and I was enjoying those good performances, but this year especially more because we changed more than normal.”
Speaking ahead of the City match, Emery acknowledged that the club had sold more players than usual and recruited younger footballers who needed time to adapt to his demands.
“Every year we needed to sell some players, but we have bought players too, with potential. This summer was a little bit different; we sold more than we usually do.
“We were buying younger and more players than we did before. That needs time to get them to understand our demands.
“But I’m not frustrated. I like to build teams, to watch them individually and collectively to see how they progress. I’d like sometimes to buy the best players in the world! But I accept how we are doing and what is our capacity.”
The Villa manager believes the club must find smart ways to compete rather than attempt to match the spending power of richer rivals. He also pointed to wider investment in the club, including plans to increase Villa Park’s capacity to 50,000.
“But the club is doing a huge amount of effort in a lot of things in our budget. The next step forward is Villa Park and the 50,000 capacity. We are moving in the right direction, trying to be intelligent and work maybe even harder than other clubs to exploit our young players, with their talent, but I like it,” he said.
The challenge has been particularly clear after a summer of change, with Villa needing to blend new arrivals into Emery’s system while competing in the Premier League and Europe. Their recent results have offered encouragement that the squad is beginning to settle.
Nicolas Jackson scored both goals against City, giving Villa another significant result against one of the league’s strongest sides.
Speaking to Birmingham Live, Emery said he remained comfortable with the club’s approach and enjoyed developing players, even if the financial reality meant he could not always recruit established stars.