So he will go the way of Grealish / get picked up but is not world class right now lol
I think he has shown plenty of ambition:
- Exceeding Villa’s expectations by getting to Europe
- Wanting to work for one of English football’s elites, a genuine big club / former CL winner
- Bending over Arteta aka the second coming of the Catalonian Baldylocks in head to head combat
It’s silly to think a return to the EPL is something any manager would consider light work, managing Arsenal might be an exception when you consider the long rope some fans have given Arteta
How can a 28 year old striker be considered world class when he has had only one prolific season in his entire career?
World class strikers/forwards are the likes of Kane, Haaland, Mbappe, Lewandowski etc. not Watkins.
Watkins is very good right now, but you need to do it for a few seasons consistently to be considered world class.
He will go the Grealish way if he can keep this up for another season. If not, he will be seen as a one hit wonder who got back to his normal level after a short peak.
Aston Villa is a far from an English football elite and a genuinely big club. They are miles off.
Yes they have a rich history and a traditionally successful club, but they are a mid-tier club in contemporary football and they are nowhere near the top of the food chain.
Which means that Aston Villa will not be competing for the PL or the UCL in the near or distant future unless they are sold to a new owner with deeper pockets.
No top manager would want to be at such a club at this point, a club that will not give him the opportunity and the resources to win the league and the UCL.
You draw out a list of the top 10-15 managers in the world right now and none of them would want to be at Aston Villa. This is not a dig at Aston Villa but an acceptance of where they stand.
Villa fans are obsessed with Arteta because Arteta is where Emery wanted to be and Villa fans are thriving under an Arsenal reject.
Arteta bent Emery over when he thrived in the same job and turned things around for Arsenal where Emery soiled his trousers and got booted out.
That is where the debate ended between the two. Emery didn’t have the chops to get Arsenal back on track. Arteta did, and he did it even though he had no prior experience which shows that he has a far greater ceiling as manager.
You offer both Arteta and Emery to any top club in Europe right now and every single one of them would pick Arteta.
So what if he beat him in a few h2h games? Some managers/teams can prove to be your bogeyman.
Pep has been getting humiliated at Spurs for years but he is a far better manager than any Spurs manager in this period.
Couple of seasons ago, Nuno did the double on Pep. Does that make Nuno a better tactician/manager? Of course not.
The way Emery plays might not suit to the way Arteta want to play. It is not a good match up for Arteta so far, but the job that Arteta is doing at Arsenal is the exact job that Emery failed to do at Arsenal and that sums up the comparison.