OFFICIAL: Unai Emery extends Aston Villa contract

Emery has done an impressive job at Villa Park, guiding the club from a relegation fight when he took over from Steven Gerrard in November 2022 to the brink of Champions League qualification. The Birmingham club are fourth in the Premier League table, six points ahead of fifth-placed Tottenham, who have two games in hand.

Villa are also through to the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League, where they will face Olympiakos as they hunt a first European trophy since 1982, when they were crowned European champions. The former Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal boss was recently linked with the vacant Bayern Munich position and a number of other top European clubs are in the hunt for new managers.

"We are enjoying our way together with Villa fans, the club owners, management and this great group of players that we are proud of," said the 52-year-old Spaniard, whose existing deal had two years to run. Me and the football management, we share the vision of the owners. Nassef (Sawiris) and Wes (Edens) are very supportive and respectful, and we have a good environment and the right structure to develop this football club.

"We must maintain the hard-working spirit, clever decisions and coordination with the ownership that we have found during this time. We will work to get better and better. And we will demand from each other. Ambition already is, and must always be, the motto of this project."

Chairman Sawiris said: "We are thrilled and are building a sporting operation around Unai to support him with a view of returning Aston Villa, a co-founder of the English Football League as we prepare to celebrate our 150th anniversary, to its historic levels of greatness."