Aston Villa must be absolutely buzzing with how the Unai Emery era is shaping up, but the Spaniard wasn’t the Midlands club’s first-choice to replace Steven Gerrard.
Indeed, before appointing Emery, Villa made an ambitious approach for Mauricio Pochettino, and by the sounds of things, they nearly got him in.
According to The Telegraph, sources close to Pochettino are now admitting that the job at Villa Park is the closest the Argentine has come to taking a job since being sacked by PSG at the end of last season.
Ultimately, the former Spurs boss opted against taking up this post, but it sounds like the Villans gave him something to think about.
This is a real credit to Villa. There aren’t many clubs in England that could have almost attracted a coach like Pochettino at a time where a relegation battle looked like a real possibility.
Simply put, Villa are one of the more ambitious teams in Europe, and while they couldn’t fully sell Pochettino on their project, the fact that he almost took the job is promising.
Of course, Villa would eventually appoint another former PSG manager in the shape of Emery, and after a fantastic start to life in the second-city, there probably aren’t many Villa fans who would swap the Spaniard for Pochettino at this moment in time.
We can’t help but wonder what a Villa team under Pochettino would have looked like and what sort of signings he would have made if he came to Villa Park.
Unfortunately, we’ll never know, but it’s hard to imagine that he’d be doing a much better job than Emery has done to date at Villa.
What Pochettino does next in his managerial career remains to be seen, but if he was tempted by Villa, perhaps his next job will be on the horizon very soon.
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