As Aston Villa arrived at Besiktas Park on the banks of the Bosphorus, for one last training session before the real thing, it was impossible not to consider the journey to the Europa League final. John McGinn, who will lead Villa out as captain in Istanbul, was in the side promoted from the Championship via the playoff final seven years ago. Tyrone Mings also started that day at Wembley and across the course of the following 12 months Villa built a spine that will be central to their hopes of winning their first major European trophy since 1982.
It is why McGinn’s mind goes back to a 3-0 league defeat at Wigan and a midweek trip to Rotherham in the season they clinched promotion, averting a likely financial disaster. Tammy Abraham, then on loan from Chelsea, also began the playoff final victory over Derby. “If we lose that match, are Aston Villa here at the minute?” McGinn says. “Probably not. For us, tomorrow night, it will be nice to see the supporters who were there at Rotherham away, Wigan away, nights like that on a Tuesday evening when it’s very easy to stay at home. They deserve it just as much as the players do and hopefully we can give them something to remember.”
Ezri Konsa, a beacon of consistency who could be forgiven for living off being labelled a Rolls-Royce by Prince William, who is expected to attend the final as an avid Villa supporter, joined in the months after they returned to the Premier League. Emiliano Martínez, Ollie Watkins and Matty Cash arrived the following summer. Together the core of this Villa side have reached the Europa Conference League semi-finals, the Champions League quarter-finals and a FA Cup semi-final. On Wednesday they will, as Emery says, be the focus of the footballing world.
McGinn has spoken about shedding the tag of “nearly men” and Martínez acknowledges it would be “massive” to get over the line against Freiburg. “We’ve been together for so many years, played so many games together, going from mid-table to the European places, semi-finals and now we’re in the final. I think we deserve it. I think the fans deserve it. And obviously the manager has had five finals and you wouldn’t want anyone else on the bench leading us in a European final.”
Martínez likens trying to feed Villa’s hunger for a first trophy since the League Cup in 1996 to his first Copa América with Argentina in 2021. “I went into my first Copa América without seeing Argentina win a trophy,” says the World Cup winner. “I was 27, 28 years old and this is the same. In Birmingham the Villa fans always say: ‘I’ve never seen Villa in a European final, I’ve never seen Villa lifting a trophy.’ So it’s that same mindset as I went into my first Copa América, with that anger, belief and confidence I can do it. I believe in my team and myself.”
Martínez was speaking publicly for the first time since attempting to leave the club last summer. It was this time last season he cried as he left Villa Park, presuming it would be for the last time. “We are in a European final, in the Champions League again with all the circumstances and the ups and downs, and with the budget we had this year, we were among the lowest spenders in the Premier League,” says Martínez. “Sometimes football can change … when we stick together and fight together we can beat anybody. I am really proud to stay – I made the right choice.”
Villa yearn for a trophy and, as Martínez says, the consensus is that in Emery they have something of a superpower. Thomas Tuchel’s comments in the buildup to Chelsea’s Super Cup victory over Emery’s Villarreal in 2021 spring to mind. “They can call the [Europa League] trophy the Unai Emery trophy soon,” said the now England manager. Emery, however, is reluctant to lean into that characterisation.
“I am not a king in this competition,” says the Basque. “I am now here with Aston Villa in a new chapter. And everything I did is done – of course it’s there in that moment but with it I am not winning tomorrow. I need to win with the players we have now, with Villa now. It’s a new way, a new moment and, hopefully, a new era.”
Villa, who could welcome back Amadou Onana from a calf injury after he trained with his teammates on Tuesday, are heavy favourites to beat a Freiburg side that finished seventh in the Bundesliga. McGinn and Emery recognise as much, both reading from the same hymn sheet. McGinn talks of treating Freiburg with the respect they deserve, Emery of a tricky task. “We have a huge challenge,” Villa’s manager says. “Are we thinking about the next party on Friday? No, no, no.”
