Emery insists Aston Villa can win the Champions League as he prepares to sign new contract

Unai Emery has publicly stated his belief that Aston Villa can win the Champions League, with the Spanish coach set to commit his future to the club by signing a new contract. His remarks arrive in the aftermath of a high-profile dispute between Villa and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher.

Carragher sparked a fierce reaction when he suggested Emery would be a suitable candidate to replace Michael Carrick as Manchester United manager. A subsequent sweary message directed at Villa supporters prompted the club to take the extraordinary step of threatening Carragher with legal action. The former Liverpool defender issued an apology but has since maintained his position, writing in the Telegraph that it was “beyond doubt” United eclipse Villa “on every conceivable metric” and that “when a club of United’s size wants Aston Villa’s managers or players, traditionally they get them.”

Emery, speaking ahead of Villa’s trip to Old Trafford on Sunday, pushed back firmly on that narrative by pointing to football’s capacity for surprises. “Aston Villa won [the European Cup] in 1982. They were favourites at that moment? I think not,” he said. “Leicester won the league 10 years ago. In football, everything can happen.”

The Villa manager drew on his own career to illustrate the point, noting that his Villarreal side reached the Champions League semi-final four years ago and that Borussia Dortmund contested the final three years ago — neither club considered among the competition’s traditional favourites.

Emery acknowledged the scale of the challenge in the Premier League, where Villa have twice finished fourth, at times sitting only two or three points behind Manchester City and Arsenal in December before consistency over 38 matches proved elusive. “To keep the consistency in 38 matches is the difficult way,” he said. “But we are working, trying to get our best.”

He was candid about the odds stacked against Villa while refusing to lower his sights. “Of course, it is very difficult to win the Premier League, very difficult to win the Champions League. I have my dreams, thinking in objectives like that. In all my moments working in all the clubs, I was setting my demand high and my objectives high, sometimes achieving and sometimes not.”

Emery pointed to winning the Europa League last season — “the second competition in Europe” — as evidence of the club’s upward trajectory, and indicated that continued improvement remains the focus even while Villa are not yet considered genuine title contenders.