When Aston Villa face Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday night, two familiar faces will come up against each other.
Unai Emery managed Thiago Motta towards the latter end of his career when they were at Paris Saint-Germain, winning the league title in 2018, as well as four other domestic trophies.
Motta had a glittering playing career, playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world, including Barcelona and Inter, as well as repping Italy on 30 occasions.
As Aston Villa fans know too well, Emery is pretty intense in his work and there probably isn’t a harder worker out there than the Spaniard himself.
You sense that the man who will stand in the opposite dugout on Wednesday evening will have an advantage because he knows how his former boss operates before he can watch a clip of Aston Villa.
And, going back to comments the Juventus boss made of Emery previously, then it seems as though he didn’t always agree with his methods.
Thiago Motta claimed Unai Emery wanted to ‘control everything’
One of the reasons why Villa are in the Champions League is because the powers that be at the club have given Emery all the power that he wants and he has worked very well with it.
Emery was allowed to bring Monchi in at Villa and it’s clear that he is the one who runs the ship.
But, as quoted by The Times, Motta wasn’t a fan of that in Paris as he accused Emery of ‘wanting to control everything’ and how that was a barrier for players ‘being leaders, expressing themselves and taking responsibility’.
You wonder if he thinks differently of him now given that Emery has continued to have success and is thriving in Villa colours.
Aston Villa and Juventus injury news
After four matches, Villa occupy the final Champions League play-off spot and they can seriously boost their chances of a top-eight finish with a win here.
The big news is that Villa have been handed an injury boost because Boubacar Kamara and Ezri Konsa – who missed the draw against Crystal Palace – are back in training.
But the same can’t be said for their opponents. Douglas Luiz is an injury doubt and it seems like a fairytale return to Villa Park might not happen.
But Juventus are in a bit of an injury crisis anyway, with eight senior players facing the possibility of not being able to make the trip to England.
