The Big Kick-Off: Unai Emery’s excellence has got Aston Villa fans dreaming

Under Emery, ambition is alive again. Not since Villa looked to follow up a thrilling 2007-08 campaign under Martin O’Neill has a season been so eagerly anticipated.

Delivering on the promise is the challenge now facing Emery and the Spaniard could hardly have given himself a tougher first act to follow.

Villa claimed 49 points from 25 matches after he took charge at the start of November when they were perched precariously above the relegation zone, eventually leading them to a seventh-placed finish. Such form, extended across an entire season, would usually be good enough for a Champions League spot. In that light, it is easy to see why supporters might be just a tad excited.

Neither have any of Villa’s moves since the end of last season done anything to dampen the optimism. Quite the opposite.

The three signings so far should all complement and strengthen the spine of a squad which proved itself to be more than handy in the closing month of the last campaign.

Youri Tielemans was the first new man through the door, with Villa seeing off a host of rivals to land the former Leicester midfielder on a free transfer. Pau Torres, a player previously courted by Bayern Munich and already well known to Emery from their time together at Villarreal, arrived for £31.5million and adds quality and depth to a defence which was never less than miserly during the run-in.

Most exciting of all is Moussa Diaby, signed from Bayer Leverkusen in a club record £43m deal. The France international winger will be tasked with providing Villa with an added attacking spark and easing the burden on Ollie Watkins, top scorer in each of the last three seasons. All three new men have experience of playing in European competition.

It is not only on the pitch where Villa’s recruitment has been bold. After the disappointment being turned down at the 11th hour by Barcelona sporting director Mateu Alemany, Villa managed to lure Monchi from Sevilla to become their new director of football operations.

The 54-year-old, another who has previously worked with Emery, has the reputation for being one of Europe’s best talent-spotters. With former Philadelphia 76ers president Chris Heck having taken charge of the commercial department and former chief executive Christian Purslow having departed, the club has evolved rapidly.

In the middle of it all sits Emery. Monchi might technically sit above the head coach in the chain of command but it is the latter who wields the most power and who has been allowed to reshape the football department how he sees fit.

Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, the club’s billionaire owners, have seen nothing in the first nine months of his reign to question the sense they scored a major coup in convincing the 51-year-old to replace Steven Gerrard last autumn. There is almost a sense Emery has reawakened their own passion for the project. Sawiris certainly, for one, has taken much more of a hands-on role in recent months.

All of which further raises the pressure on Emery to deliver on the promise. There is a healthy line of predecessors, from Ron Atkinson to Brian Little and O’Neill, who built teams which shone brightly but failed to truly fulfil their potential. To realise Villa’s biggest ambitions, Emery will eventually have to buck a trend which has frustrated supporters for a generation and more.

This season represents the next step and will bring new challenges. Determining precisely what would constitute a satisfactory campaign isn’t easy and depends on who you talk to.

Having worked wonders with the squad he inherited, Emery must now incorporate new signings while maintaining the same collective spirit which helped power last season’s surge up the table.

Juggling the demands of domestic and European competition is another element new to many members of Villa’s squad. There were just 41 first-team fixtures last season. This year’s number is likely to be well into the 50s.

Yet in Emery, players could hardly wish for a better guide. This will be the Spaniard’s 16th straight season managing in Europe and in four of the previous 15 he has ended it holding the Europa League trophy. Villa will be expected to go far in the Europa Conference League, a competition won by West Ham last time around. The Carabao Cup and FA Cup, the latter of which delivered comfortably the lowest point of Emery’s reign with the almost inexplicable defeat to League Two Stevenage, will also be taken seriously by a head coach with a craving for silverware.

When Emery declared his ambition to end Villa’s long major trophy drought at his unveiling last autumn, it felt like the start of a long-term project. Now, on the eve of his first full season at the helm, he has supporters believing that particular dream might be realised sooner rather than later.