Morgan Rogers lifts lid on Unai Emery's 'massive' Aston Villa impact - 'I wouldn't want him in any other corner'

When he was appointed in October 2022, Villa were 14th in the Premier League table, three points above the relegation zone.

A week earlier, they had lost 3-0 to Fulham, a performance that captain John McGinn had said was ”embarrassing to be part of”, and led to Steven Gerrard losing his job.

Villa weren’t at the nadir of their 2015/16 horror season, but all was not well.

Enter Emery.

Three-and-a-half years later and Villa are European regulars, fifth in the Premier League table, eyeing a first major trophy in 30 years, and on track to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the second time in the last three years.

Never before in their history - even at the heights of winning the European Cup in 1982 - have Villa played in Europe in four consecutive seasons, as they look set to do now.

So just how important has Emery been in getting Villa back into the big time?

”Massive,” Villa star Morgan Rogers tells TNT Sports. ”I wouldn't want him in any other corner other than ours … It's not always a quick fix, but he's done it in such a rapid time.

”You probably wouldn't appreciate how good he actually is and how quickly he's actually done it, because it takes years sometimes to turn around clubs from being in difficult moments to being in good moments.

"To do it so quickly and to be so stable in the last three years or so has been remarkable.

”And it's down to him, and it's down to the coaching staff and the players and all working together as one unit.”

Emery always looked like a good fit for Aston Villa.

It might not have worked out at Arsenal, or in Europe with Paris Saint-Germain, but at similar sized clubs to Villa, Emery had already shown he could excel.

Valencia had several good years under Emery, as did Sevilla, winning three successive Europa League trophies. Before arriving at Villa, Emery had won the Europa League again with Villarreal and taken them to the Champions League semi-finals.

So what is it about Emery that makes him so special?

”His motivation, his attention to detail, his non-stop hard work on each individual player, wanting to improve them and develop them, is massive, and it brings results,” explains Rogers.

When asked to describe Emery in one word, Villa's McGinn had previously said: "Detailed."

Joaquin, who played under Emery at Valencia, said that his former manager ”put on so many videos I ran out of popcorn” and is ”obsessed by football.”

Rogers paints a similar picture.

”There are times when you’re out there and it’s definitely boring, I'll be honest,” he says with a smile.

”He knows it's boring and he knows it's repeating himself, and it's going over the same things that we already know.

”But if we don't, we'll get found out. You can see the details on the picture when it comes to fruition.

”You can tell, and you know why he's doing it, and you know how important it is. And, yeah, you just listen, you focus, and you know you'll get the rewards at the end, and that's what we've been doing.”

It must help to buy into such a ”detailed” process when the rewards are so obvious. In three seasons under Emery, Villa have finished seventh, fourth and sixth. They look unlikely to finish any lower than fifth this season.

Villa haven’t had such sustained success at any other point this century.

Rogers arrived midway through Emery’s Villa rebuild for a now bargain-looking fee of £8 million from Middlesbrough in the January 2024 transfer window.

He remembers first meeting Emery - and getting "straight to work".

”He speaks to you like he's known you for a while when you first meet him, but there's no awkwardness, he doesn't want the awkwardness.

”He's straight to work, straight to his demands, straight to ‘you need to be on my level of what I want to improve and what I want to learn and get out of it'.

”I think that's so easy and so important that you straight away connect on a professional level as we both want to improve, and he's going to get the best out of you. He's going to push you and he's going to motivate you.

”So it's down to you to apply yourself, and then you naturally will listen to him and develop.”

Rogers has been one of Villa's standout performers under Emery.

In his short spell at Middlesbrough, he had impressed largely as a winger, but at Villa he has shone in more of an attacking midfield role.

In 2024/25, he won the PFA Young Player of the Year award after scoring 14 goals and providing 15 assists across all competitions. He has become an integral player at Villa, playing more minutes than any other player at the club in the Premier League this season and looks poised to play an important role for England at this summer’s World Cup.

Rogers says he has been given freedom to ”express” himself under Emery.

”He's allowed me to be me," Rogers adds.

”He's also been hard on me to demand more of myself, to improve and to get better and to be more confident and to show myself and show what I'm about.

”I owe a lot to him for allowing me to do so in the team, for allowing me to play through mistakes, for allowing me to be me and to grow up and to learn on the job.

”It hasn't always been perfect, it hasn't always been right, but to stick by me and to allow me to get through those moments, to shine at the other end has been really important for me and really big for my journey of getting to where I am.”

Before any thoughts of the World Cup enter the mind for Rogers, Villa have the chance to win their first major silverware since 1996.

They are in the UEFA Europa League semi-finals against Nottingham Forest, losing the first leg 1-0 at the City Ground, and also looking to wrap up a top-five finish as they face Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday evening, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max.

Emery has already said he doesn’t want the season to finish.

This is his time; when the games keep coming and there’s still the juggling act between domestic and European football. 

This is where Emery is at his best.

”We’ve got to lean on him in tough moments and tough times, and he's going to have to navigate us through,” says Rogers.

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