Aston Villa's Struggles: Merson Questions Emery's Future
Aston Villa’s season is barely underway and already feels like it’s unravelling.
Thirty minutes at Brighton told the story. Four goals conceded. No response. A 4-0 defeat that felt even heavier for a club that only a few months ago was celebrating Champions League qualification and a European trophy.
For Paul Merson, watching on as a former Villa player, the sight is painful.
“You sell all your best players, what do you expect?” he argues in his latest Sky Sports column. He didn’t expect 4-0 down inside half an hour, but he didn’t expect Villa to beat Brighton either. Not with this squad, not after this summer.
From Champions League High to Sudden Break-Up
Villa haven’t just lost players. They’ve lost their spine.
- Ezri Konsa gone.
- Youri Tielemans gone.
- Morgan Rogers gone.
One by one, key figures have been moved on after a landmark season. The result? A Champions League club looking nothing like one.
“It’s madness at the highest level,” Merson says. A “big, big football club” reaches Europe’s elite, wins a European trophy, then dismantles its core. It makes no football sense to him.
He doesn’t see relegation on the cards. The squad, even stripped back, should still have enough. But he doesn’t see a top-half finish either, not even with Unai Emery in the dugout.
And that’s the next fear. How long does Emery put up with this?
Emery’s Future Under the Microscope
Merson is blunt. If Emery isn’t fed up, “then he’s some person.”
This is a manager regarded as one of the best in the game, a specialist in European competition, a coach who took Villa to levels many fans thought they’d never see again. Now he’s watching important players walk away “left, right and centre”.
Merson draws a stark comparison. He recalls Spurs winning a European trophy and finishing 17th. Emery won the same trophy and finished fourth. That’s the level of overachievement he sees, and it’s why he struggles to picture Emery sticking around if the exodus continues.
For Merson, this isn’t just another club. It’s Aston Villa. His Aston Villa. “A great, great club,” he calls them, and he doesn’t hide how much it hurts to see them sell “everyone that’s top drawer” just when they’ve “fought to get to the promised land” of Champions League football.
Release Clauses Under Fire
The decisions behind the sales have left Merson incredulous, especially the numbers involved.
He singles out the Youri Tielemans deal. A £36m release clause for a player he regards as one of the best midfielders in the country? “Whoever did that contract… should be under scrutiny,” he insists.
In a market where clubs battling relegation are paying around £35m for players, that figure feels absurdly low to him. “That is just an absolute cup of tea in this day and age of football,” he says. In his eyes, it’s “the deal of the century” for Manchester United, if Tielemans performs as expected.
The Konsa fee grates as well. An England international centre-half, fresh from a World Cup, leaving for £55m. “It’s sad,” Merson says. Not just because of the quality going out of the door, but because of what it signals about Villa’s ambition right when they should be kicking on.
Watkins Row Sparks Anger
Then there’s Ollie Watkins.
The striker was not involved against Brighton amid interest from Saudi Arabia. Reports suggest he was fit but did not make himself available. If that is true, Merson doesn’t hold back.
“Disgusting at the highest level,” he calls it.
He points to the Holte End, to fans paying big money for season tickets, travel, and everything that comes with following a club up and down the country. Their centre forward, on big wages, with what Merson describes as “the best job in the whole wide world” – playing Premier League football – not putting himself forward to play? He can’t accept it.
He understands the temptation. Saudi money is huge. Watkins is not “a spring chicken” anymore. But that, in Merson’s view, can’t excuse stepping away from a game.
“You have to want to play football,” he says. Those supporters in the Holte End “will give their right arm” to be out there. If Watkins refused to play, Merson believes he should apologise. He even goes as far as saying Villa should refuse to pay him for the week: “Your job literally is to turn up at a weekend and play a football match.”
A Club at a Crossroads
So here Villa stand. A Champions League side on paper, a dismantled side on the pitch, a world-class manager under pressure, and star players either sold or seemingly with their heads elsewhere.
For Merson, the heartbreak is clear. The question now is just as clear: do Villa find a way to match Emery’s ambition, or do they watch the architect of their revival walk away from a project that suddenly feels like it’s being torn down from within?
