Former Aston Villa favourite Ashley Young has delivered a passionate tribute after the club’s Europa League final victory placing Emery alongside the greatest managers in European football history.
- Young called Emery a “born winner” insisting his name belongs alongside Ancelotti and Mourinho
- He described McGinn as “Mr Aston Villa” expressing enormous personal pride at watching the captain lift the trophy
- The former Villa and England winger recalled the club’s 16th-place starting point when Emery arrived
- Emery becomes only the second manager to win a major European competition five times, after Carlo Ancelotti
“Put his name alongside Ancelotti and Mourinho”
Ashley Young’s tribute to Unai Emery was delivered with the passion and conviction of a man who loves Aston Villa deeply and understands exactly what tonight’s achievement represents within the broader context of European football history.
The former Villa and England winger,who announced his retirement earlier this season did not hold back in his assessment of the manager who has transformed the club beyond recognition.
“Emery is a winner. He is a born winner, especially in this competition, when he has shown it time and time and time again,” Young stated. “Put his name up there alongside Ancelotti and Mourinho.”
That specific instruction, not a suggestion but a demand, reflects the historical accuracy of the comparison. Emery has now won a major European competition five times. Only Carlo Ancelotti with five Champions League titles can match that figure. He stands alongside the most decorated managers European football has ever produced.
His reflection on the scale of the achievement, viewed through the lens of where Emery found Villa when he arrived, was equally powerful.
“He’s put this club back into Europe, back into the Champions League. If you had said when we were in 16th position that he would come in and win the Europa League, not one player would think that would be true. He’s just got a way.”
This is the most instinctive and honest summary of Emery’s indefinable quality that anyone has offered throughout this extraordinary season.
“Fans have waited so long”. Young’s tribute to the supporters
Young’s tribute extended beyond the manager and the players reaching the supporters who have followed this club through every difficult moment of the past thirty years with unwavering loyalty and genuine love.
“The fans have waited so long for this silverware and for them to get it having played in this way today is unbelievable,” he stated.
“The size of the club, the players that have come through the door at Aston Villa, the players that are there now, to not win a trophy for 40 years has been disappointing.”
That honest acknowledgement from a man who wore the claret and blue with enormous pride across two separate spells carries the specific weight of someone who understands what Villa Park means to the people who call it home.
His broader reflection on what tonight’s victory means for the players themselves was equally revealing. “These players will be looking at that and feeling that there is something there tonight to go and grab and make themselves a part of history.”
They did exactly that. In Istanbul, on the banks of the Bosphorus, in front of 20,000 Villa supporters, they made themselves a part of history forever.
“So proud of Ginny”. A personal tribute to McGinn
Young reserved his most personal and emotionally charged words for the man who lifted the trophy, John McGinn. The bond between the two former teammates was evident in every word Young delivered on the subject of the Villa captain.
“I’m so proud of Ginny picking up that trophy,” he stated with unmistakable warmth. “What he has done for Aston Villa, what he gives to that club is phenomenal. Day in and day out, he is literally ‘Mr Aston Villa’. It is so good to see him lift the trophy.”
That specific designation as Mr Aston Villa, is the most complete and accurate description of McGinn’s relationship with the club that anyone has offered. Joined from Hibernian in 2018. Promoted from the Championship. Survived relegation scares.
Captained the club through three European campaigns. Scored the brace that sent them to Istanbul. And lifted the trophy that ended 30 years of waiting.
Young himself announced his retirement from professional football earlier this season and the timing of Villa’s triumph carries a specific emotional resonance for a man who gave so much to the club across 247 appearances across two spells. He never won a major trophy in claret and blue. Tonight’s celebration, watching from afar, will have been bittersweet and entirely beautiful in equal measure.
ReadAstonVilla Verdict
Young’s words are the perfect external tribute to a night of extraordinary internal significance. A born winner. Mr Aston Villa lifting the trophy. Fans who waited so long finally rewarded. The facts are all correct and the emotion behind every single one of them is entirely genuine.
Emery belongs alongside Ancelotti and Mourinho. McGinn belongs in Villa folklore forever. Tonight belongs to everyone who has ever believed in this football club
