Simon Jordan has used Aston Villa's Europa League win to make a simple point about Unai Emery. He says Arsenal were not wrong to appoint him, only that they got him at the wrong time. Villa's 3-0 win over SC Freiburg and Emery's five Europa League titles have turned that argument into something more than a neat line.
Why Jordan is backing Emery so strongly
Jordan was blunt on the subject. "It proves that Arsenal weren't wrong when they went for him. Just the timing, he was the right person probably at the wrong time," he said, adding that the media ridicule around Emery has now gone quiet. On another appearance, he went even further: "In my view, he's probably, given the tools he's working with and the component parts he has, arguably the best manager in the Premier League."
That is a strong verdict, but the evidence around Aston Villa gives it real weight. Villa are fourth in the Premier League with 62 points from 37 matches and their league record is 18-8-11. In Europe they went 7-0-1, then finished the job with a 3-0 win in the final. That is the sort of season that makes a manager look settled, not lucky.
What Villa's run says about Emery now
The trophy matters because it is Villa's first major European trophy since 1982, and because Emery has now won the Europa League five times. Those are the numbers that explain why his reputation feels so different from the one he carried out of Arsenal. He was sacked there after 18 months, but the line Jordan is pushing is that the failure was about timing, not the appointment itself.
Emery's own message after the final was cautious rather than grand. "we are going to go on, this is not the end of the road," he said. That fits the wider picture. Villa's European title is a major marker, not a finish line, and Jordan's praise will probably sound less exaggerated if Emery keeps this level going next season.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 5 outlets. How we work →
