Unai Emery arrives at Besiktas Park for a Europa League final on Wednesday, his sixth in 12 years, but he insists past European triumphs won’t carry Aston Villa through kick-off against Bundesliga rivals. After Liverpool’s 4-2 loss of Champions League dreams w
When Unai Emery steps out onto the touchline at Besiktas Park on Wednesday, it will look familiar from a distance. It’s the kind of setting that already comes with history: he will be there for his sixth Europa League final in 12 years.
But in the dressing room, the language has changed. Emery doesn’t want to be treated like a man carrying a trophy cupboard. He is adamant the past stays in the past, even as his record in the competition is unmatched by any other manager.
He remembers what can go wrong. Emery lost the 2019 final to Chelsea while at Arsenal. and the 18-month reign that followed was widely seen as a failure. There is no hiding from that chapter. Yet he also points to the wins that make his name synonymous with the tournament: three Europa League triumphs with Sevilla—in 2014. 2015 and 2016—when they beat Liverpool. and a penalty shootout victory over Manchester United with Villarreal in 2021.
Still, he insists none of it will matter when Aston Villa kick off against their Bundesliga rivals.
“I am not a king in this competition,” Emery said. “I am now here with Aston Villa in a new chapter. Everything I did is done and of course it’s there in that moment but with it I am not winning.”
What matters, he added, is the task in front of him—starting in Turkey with the group he has now.
“I need to win [in Turkey] with the players we have now, with Villa now. So now it’s a new way, a new moment, and hopefully a new era.”
Emery’s focus wasn’t delivered like a motivational poster. It came with sharp boundaries: respect your opponent, respect the competition, and don’t slip into celebration before the whistle.
“If you are not respecting the opponent, you are closer to losing. If you are not respecting Europe, like we did during the process, we are not here. This is the strong mentality we had before.”
Then he shut down the temptation to look beyond the match.
“We have a huge challenge, a huge challenge. Are we thinking about the next party on Friday? No, no.”
That insistence lands differently when you remember what Villa have achieved under him. Emery has managed 115 games in the Europa League, winning 71, and his best win rate in the competition is his 85.7% with Villa. Those wins are a competition record.
The numbers around Villa in Europe have kept building. Since the start of 2023-24, no side has won more European matches than Villa, with a tally of 26.
Even that dominance hasn’t turned him into a certainty back home. Emery has been overlooked in the Premier League’s Manager of the Season nominations in what he has described as a strange disconnect from the impact he’s had.
His week has carried another layer of pressure and release. Emery spoke to his players on Saturday morning after Friday’s 4-2 win over Liverpool sealed Champions League qualification—exactly the kind of result that can sharpen belief while also intensifying the next one.
In that debrief, he didn’t just talk about the final in front of them. He reminded the squad about the journey since he replaced Steven Gerrard in late 2022.
It’s a path with turns that don’t usually happen in a straight line: a Europa Conference League semi-final, a Champions League quarter-final, and two top-five finishes. And in the same span, he’s had to manage emotions that flare—especially when things go badly.
At the start of the month, Tottenham handed Villa an abject defeat. Emery had refused to lay into his players at half-time, a decision that the squad appreciated as “a fatherly touch of reminding them of what they have achieved together.”
So now the message is aimed forward, not backward: Turkey is its own moment. Emery’s record can’t be denied—but for him, the only question that counts is what happens when Villa face their Bundesliga rivals at Besiktas Park on Wednesday.
Unai Emery Aston Villa Europa League final Besiktas Park Bundesliga rivals Sevilla 2014 2015 2016 Villarreal 2021 Liverpool 4-2 Champions League qualification
So he’s basically saying trophies don’t count? lol ok.
Wait I thought Liverpool was in the Europa League final mix?? This article’s jumping around. But if Emery keeps acting like a “new chapter” then why does he even talk about the old wins.
Emery rejecting the “Euro king” label is just PR. Like sure he says it’s “done,” but you can’t erase 3 trophies. Also didn’t he lose with Arsenal and then he was “a failure”?? Sounds like he’s still living off the past anyway.
I don’t even get why they’re using “kick-off against Bundesliga rivals” like the rivals are gonna show up tired from Germany or something. Europa League is messy. One minute it’s about Emery not being a king, next minute they’re reminding everyone he beat Liverpool (again?) and then Liverpool somehow lost 4-2 dreams… to what? Football article confuses me every time.