Unai Emery is reportedly a leading target for Manchester United if they dispense with head coach Michael Carrick. Of course he is. Why would he not be? How could he not be? He's one of the finest managers in the game.
Emery has revolutionised Aston Villa once and is in the process of doing it again, leaner and meaner, and jumping ship to fix Man United isn't going to be on his agenda this season.
United, should they show Carrick the door, will need a firefighter. They'll need a rescue job. Even if they're too myopic to understand that in the short-term, Emery is too smart not to.
Unai Emery knows his strengths and the environment he needs to use them
Villa supporters' confidence that any ambitious approach from United would immediately be repelled is rooted not in the chaotic situation at Old Trafford but the relative serenity in which Emery is able to perform at Villa Park.
The Basque boss has found his home in Birmingham. Emery has been gathering power throughout his four years in charge and enjoys a degree of control few clubs in 2026 would countenance. It's worked for Villa because of Emery's ability and suitability, but it's also a big risk on the part of the club.
There's a world in which Man United can persuade a manager to leave Villa; it would be naive to believe otherwise. But Emery is not your common or garden gaffer, and his relationship with Villa is not the norm.
Take the inevitable United interest and betting odds at face value if you must, but Emery has rebuilt Villa in his image and with his people.
Damian Vidagany and Roberto Olabe, the other pillars of Villa's football department, are Emery's men. United could theoretically take them in as a trio along with Emery's coaching staff, but it's the fact that he was empowered to bring them in to begin with that's most significant.
Emery clearly loves a challenge but he has a sharp enough awareness of his qualities that he can appreciate a good challenge and sniff out a bad one at a thousand paces.
Villa's Europa League win was a triumph of structure on and off the pitch. Emery knows that he and Villa are the right coupling at the right time, and has thrived by quietly putting down roots in a way he couldn't at Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain, and wouldn't be able to at Manchester United.
His control and its consequences are uniquely Villa.
Where else would Emery enjoy such widespread trust to keep new signings out of the team until they're giving him exactly what his strategy demands?
Where else would Emery be able to bring in a project player like Alejandro Garnacho and play him so infrequently at the start of his loan without any serious doubts over his methods?
Emery and V Sports are a match made in heaven
Emery is proven and trusted at Villa. More importantly, he is entrenched even more deeply than his command in B6 and at Bodymoor Heath suggest.
Villa's ownership group consists of Nassef Sawiris, Wes Edens and the Michael Angelakis-fronted investment firm Atairos. They co-own V Sports, which in turn owns Villa.
V Sports also owns most of Aston Villa Women – that's a matter for another day – as well as significant holdings in Portuguese side Vitoria SC, the French club FC Annecy and Real Union from the Basque Country.
Olabe's increasing involvement in Vitoria and Annecy is a clue as to Emery's connection with the Villa ownership, Sawiris in particular.
But the bigger hint can be found in Irun, where the 75% of Real Union not owned by Sawiris, Edens and Atairos belongs to one Unai Emery. His brother, Igor, is the club's president.
All of these are ties that can be undone, but taken in combination they make for one hell of a knot. Add in the progress made by Villa on the pitch, and it's safe to say that the job that eventually tempts Emery to pull at the loose strands will be truly impossible to refuse.
Manchester United in their current guise are not that.
The Old Trafford club might have the name but it's Villa who are united. Emery is reaping the rewards and is far too switched-on to believe those circumstances are easy to come by.
