Wilson wrote that Villa have been smarter about using United players than United have. Rashford’s time at Villa, with four goals in 17 appearances in all competitions, was probably the more eye-catching, but Sancho made 39 appearances in his season there. Emery is in “advanced talks” to extend a contract at Villa that already runs to 2029, according to the column.
Wilson called absurd any idea that Carrick is really the problem at United. Executives tend to remove managers after a slump in form, he wrote, because that is what clubs do: a director can show he has recognised a problem while hoping to deflect attention from his own shortcomings.
However robust a manager’s self-confidence, Wilson wrote, a leap from Villa to United at this juncture would be a remarkable risk. Elite managers share a strong self-belief, he added, and there is a paradoxical sense that the worse the situation at United becomes, the more appealing the job looks.
For now, Wilson argued, Villa look by far the brighter prospect, a club on the up, while United are in barely managed decline. The United crisis may have eased, he wrote, but it is far from over, and the club’s allure has come to look distinctly tarnished.
From Emery’s point of view, Wilson wrote, it is not only that Villa are well run, but that they are well run in his way. He would not have that degree of autonomy at many other clubs.
In almost every facet, from infrastructure to personnel, the modern Villa are better run than the modern United, the column argued.
In both cases, he wrote, Villa got value from players whose futures were uncertain without committing to take them on full-time.
United remain the eighth-wealthiest club in the world by revenue, Wilson noted. He wrote of the resources that would be available if they were actually any good, and said that at some point United will start heading in the right direction, though that is hard to imagine now. Wilson said Emery feels the right fit for Villa, and that fit is arguably the most important factor in determining success.