Aston Villa's Turmoil: Merson Warns Emery May Leave
Aston Villa have spent the summer dismantling the team that dragged them into the elite. On Sunday at Brighton, the consequences crashed down in 30 chaotic minutes.
Four-nil down before half an hour had passed. Four-nil beaten at full-time. And Paul Merson, watching his former club unravel, did not hold back in his Sky Sports column.
“You sell all your best players, what do you expect?” he wrote. He didn’t expect a 4-0 collapse that quickly, but he certainly didn’t expect Villa to beat Brighton either.
This is a club that has just qualified for the Champions League and lifted a European trophy under Unai Emery. Yet the spine has been ripped out. Ezri Konsa gone. Youri Tielemans gone. Morgan Rogers gone. The heart of a rising side, sold in one window.
Merson called it “madness at the highest level”. A “big, big football club” finally back at the top table, only to cash in on its core.
He fears the cost will go beyond a bad start.
‘I don’t see Emery staying’
Merson’s concern runs straight through to the dugout. Emery has rebuilt his reputation at Villa Park, turning a drifting side into one of the Premier League’s sharpest outfits. Now he’s watching key players disappear.
“I don’t see Unai Emery staying,” Merson admitted. “If Emery’s not fed up with this situation, then he’s some person.”
He pointed to the rarity of what Emery achieved last season: winning a European trophy and finishing fourth in the league, referencing how Tottenham once followed a European triumph by slumping to 17th. Emery avoided that fate. He elevated Villa.
Now, with his squad stripped, Merson can’t see a repeat.
He doesn’t believe Villa will be dragged into a relegation fight. But he no longer sees them as a top-half certainty either, not even with a manager of Emery’s calibre.
“We’re talking about one of the top managers in the game,” he wrote, “and everyone seems to be leaving him left, right and centre.”
For Merson, it’s personal. “We’re talking Aston Villa, who I played for and are a great, great club. It breaks your heart when you see what’s happening.”
The release clauses that stunned Merson
The sales themselves are one thing. The prices are another.
Merson reserved particular anger for the Youri Tielemans deal. The midfielder, one of the most technically gifted in the division, moved to Manchester United after a £36m release clause was triggered.
“Whoever did that contract for Youri Tielemans where he inserted a £36m release clause should be under scrutiny,” Merson said.
He pointed out that clubs fighting to finish fourth-bottom or third-bottom now routinely pay around £35m for players nowhere near Tielemans’ level. In that context, the Belgium international’s clause looked absurdly low.
“That is just an absolute cup of tea in this day and age of football,” he wrote. “Everybody goes for more than that now. It’s the deal of the century.”
Merson accepted that Tielemans still has to perform at Manchester United, but from Villa’s perspective, he felt the clause was indefensible.
“You can’t put a clause in that says £35m for one of the best midfield players in the country.”
He then turned to Ezri Konsa. An England international. A World Cup defender. Sold for £55m.
“An international centre-half, just been to the World Cup and he goes for £55m. It’s sad,” he said.
To Merson, these aren’t just transfers. They are symbols of a club that has finally reached the “promised land” of Champions League football and then chosen to cash out rather than build.
Ollie Watkins row: ‘Disgusting’ if he refused to play
As if the summer sales weren’t enough, Villa travelled to Brighton without two of their biggest names. Ollie Watkins was absent amid strong interest from Saudi Arabia. Emi Martinez also missed the game.
Reports have suggested Watkins was fit but did not make himself available. Merson didn’t soften his language.
“If it’s true that Ollie Watkins was fit to play in that Brighton game and he didn’t make himself available, then that’s disgusting at the highest level,” he wrote.
For Merson, it comes down to duty – to the club, but especially to the supporters.
“You’re getting paid a lot of money,” he said. “People are sitting in the Holte End and they pay a lot of money for season tickets and for travelling up and down the country – and you can’t put yourself out to play a football match?”
He reminded Watkins, and players like him, of the privilege they hold.
“You’ve got the best job in the whole wide world. You’re playing in the Premier League, you’re playing centre forward, you’re earning fortunes, you’re getting paid to stay fit.”
Merson acknowledged the reality: Saudi money is transformative, and Watkins is no youngster. “I understand that his head’s been turned. It’s a lot of money being offered by Saudi Arabia and he’s not a spring chicken anymore.”
But that, in his eyes, doesn’t excuse letting down the fans.
“Think of the fans as well. You have to want to play football. Every one of those fans in the Holte End will give their right arm to play that game the other day.”
Merson went as far as to say Watkins should apologise if he did refuse to play. “He should come and apologise,” he wrote. “I don’t know what he gets out of not playing.”
His solution was blunt.
“If you’re Aston Villa, you should say to him: ‘I’m not paying you this week’. Because your job literally is to turn up at a weekend and play a football match.”
A club at a crossroads
From Champions League nights on the horizon to a 4-0 hammering at Brighton and a summer of sales, Villa now stand on a knife edge.
Emery has already proven he can lift this club. Merson’s question is simple: will he be given the tools – or the patience – to do it again?
