Around 7:30pm on Monday night, rumours began to surface about Aston Villa’s preference for appointing former Arsenal boss Unai Emery as their new manager.
At Mirror Football, we started looking through those reports to see if we could determine them. However, in less than an hour, Emery appeared as Steven Gerrard’s successor and Villa had frustrated the so-called movement gurus by keeping their stuff to themselves.
There is no smokeless chimney when it comes to appointments and control moves in football, but Villa continues to buck the trend. The Premier League club has built an unexpected reputation in English football, with a window of movement just around the corner.
In August 2021, Villa produced one of the most shocking moves in recent history by signing Danny Ings from Southampton on a £25 million deal. Fans may not accept the move, as there were no rumours that the West Midlands club would be interested in the striker. .
Instead, movement experts connected Ings with Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham. After all, the Englishman had scored 28 goals in the last two seasons combined. He was not expected to sign for any other mid-table club.
As Sky Sports News journalist Dharmesh Sheth said, “This deal came out of nowhere!”
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Even Southampton midfielder Oriel Romeu had no idea what was going on. Speaking after a pre-season friendly, he said: “I just found out after the game, they told me. . . we saw this morning that he wasn’t there. ” and we thought, I don’t know, he had something and moved into the Villa. “
At least Saints skipper Ralph Hasenhuttl knew what was going on. “It wasn’t a surprise to me,” he said. We are informed of what happens behind the scenes. It was transparent that we had a player who doesn’t need to sign for us anymore. “
Later, Ings explained how Villa kept the secret. He told Villa’s website, “I’ve been to many places in my career, but this is definitely the most productive kept secret. It’s been a crazy few days. I couldn’t tell my circle of relatives until it was announced.
“Now I’m satisfied to be here and start. It’s hard [what these moments look like]. I am very close to my father. Not being able to tell him during the procedure was probably the hardest thing of my life.
“I told him on Wednesday night and he’s excited. He can’t wait to see me grow up in this club. My circle of relatives has followed me. It’s a new component of the country I’m going to live in, but I’m hunting ahead. “
Villa stunned English football in January when they announced the signing of Calum Chambers from Arsenal on a loose transfer. It wasn’t a resolution that was on anyone’s radar, as the Gunners had to keep players on their books instead of selling them.
Mikel Arteta’s team was small and the flexible defender had to finish the last six months of his contract at the Emirates. Arsenal did not even get cash for Chambers, who was allowed to sign for Villa on a loose transfer.
There were few conversations between Chambers and Gerrard before the move and it all happened temporarily, depriving the moving gurus of any chance of knowing.
“To be honest, it all happened pretty quickly,” Chambers admitted. “A few days ago, I noticed the interest and yes, since then I feel like it happened pretty quickly, so it’s an exciting time.
“I’ve played at Villa Park a couple of times, it’s a wonderful stadium and there’s a wonderful fan organisation, and notoriously the coach as well. . . We’ve talked a couple of times, it’s all positive and I can’t wait to get started with all this. “
If there’s one thing to look forward to with Villa, it’s the unexpected. It’s going to be hard to check to place Emery’s short transfer list in the January window!
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