The Aston Villa model explained: “Protecting Unai gives stability to the club”

The celebration by Prince William of England after Aston Villa secured a place in the Europa League final quickly went viral. Partly because of how emotional it was, and partly because the “Villains” had just defeated fellow English side Nottingham Forest. In the images, the future King of England could be seen hugging and jumping alongside Spaniard Damià Vidagany, a native of Llíria, Valencia, and Aston Villa’s CEO of Football. Speaking to AS just hours before Aston Villa faces Freiburg in Istanbul, Vidagany explained the foundations of the club’s project and the secret behind Unai Emery’s success. But first came the obvious question: how does someone from a small town near Valencia end up celebrating Aston Villa goals with Prince William?

“Through the help of many people, a lot of hard work, family sacrifice and by staying grounded,” Vidagany said. “Prince William is an Aston Villa fan through and through.” He was born in 1982, the same year Villa won the European Cup, and a family member passed down a love for the club that has stayed with him ever since. “From the moment we arrived in Birmingham, we noticed how deeply he feels it. Whenever he can, he comes to watch us and, when commitments prevent him from attending, he calls us, encourages us and pushes us on.” Vidagany added that, despite appearances, the prince is simply “a human being with a passion for soccer and Aston Villa.” He described him as attentive, humble and approachable, saying that meeting him has been “one of the privileges soccer gives you.”

Damià Vidagany, born in 1975, has become one of the pillars of Emery’s Aston Villa project. He is the coach’s closest executive ally, confidant and trusted sounding board. The two first met in 2008 when Emery arrived at Valencia and Vidagany was serving as the club’s communications director. Their relationship continued beyond Mestalla through the agency DV7 Management during Emery’s spells at Sevilla, PSG, Arsenal and Villarreal, before both joined Aston Villa in November 2022. A trained journalist turned soccer executive, Vidagany is now Aston Villa’s Director of Football Operations at one of England’s most historic clubs.

Asked whether he ever imagined working with Emery in the Premier League, Vidagany laughed off the idea. “Of course not,” he admitted. “I was working at Valencia, the club of my life, and Unai was facing what at the time was the biggest challenge of his career.” Still, years of trust and consistency eventually brought them together in Birmingham.

Vidagany describes himself as a “frustrated athlete.” As a teenager in basketball-mad Llíria, he dreamed of becoming a player, but quickly realized he was “terrible.” That passion for sports led him into journalism, with stints at Superdeporte, Radio 9, Cadena SER and Diario AS before crossing into club management at Valencia. Over time, he moved beyond communications into marketing, external relations and eventually executive leadership.

When asked how a journalist ends up as CEO of a Premier League club, Vidagany defended the profession. “Journalists are curious by nature. We observe everything around us and that becomes continuous learning.” He credited former Valencia president Manuel Llorente for trusting him with responsibilities inside the club’s leadership structure, where he learned firsthand how a club should operate around sporting performance. “The goal is to help the coach face as few problems as possible and provide solutions whenever issues appear.” Along the way, he said he learned from respected executives such as Javier Gómez, Braulio Vázquez, Monchi, Roberto Olabe and Mateu Alemany.

In October 2022, Aston Villa owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens decided to radically reshape the club’s direction. Villa had recently returned to the Premier League after years in the second division, but performances suggested another relegation battle was looming. That was when the owners contacted Emery, negotiations that Vidagany experienced firsthand.

Emery had previously admitted he sometimes felt isolated during his Arsenal tenure. Vidagany believes that experience partly explains why he now works alongside him. “At Arsenal, he felt he lacked people inside the structure whom he fully trusted and who also had a strong relationship with ownership,” he explained. “That alignment is crucial for information to flow and for everyone to move in the same direction.” He pointed to Villarreal as an example of how a stable and professional structure can maximize a coach’s work.

Asked about his own role at Aston Villa, Vidagany said it revolves around alignment. “Helping Unai in his relationship with ownership, removing concerns from his plate outside of tactics and working side by side with Roberto Olabe on sporting decisions.” He also emphasized the importance of protecting the coach internally, not just publicly. “Protecting a coach means avoiding unnecessary wear and tear, helping with daily management and ensuring everyone moves in the same direction.”

Vidagany believes the relationship with ownership is the foundation of everything. He praised Sawiris and Edens for giving professionals autonomy and trusting them to make decisions. According to him, when Emery arrived, the owners effectively handed him “a blank sheet of paper” to build the project his way. “They promised him freedom and they have never changed from that promise,” he said.

For Vidagany, Emery’s defining quality is responsibility. “When he wins, he’s already thinking about the next game within minutes.” He described the coach as relentless, someone who reached Champions League qualification on a Friday night and was back preparing for the Europa League final by 8:30 the next morning. “There hasn’t been a single day since we arrived in Birmingham when Unai hasn’t gone to the training ground to work.”

The executive believes Emery has evolved over the years. While he still possesses the same passion and energy, he now has greater self-control and wisdom. “Experience allows him to master himself more,” Vidagany explained, adding that the Spaniard has become even more strategic in his decision-making.

Emery’s remarkable relationship with the Europa League has become one of the defining themes of his career. Vidagany argued that it is less about the competition itself and more about Emery consistently maximizing the level of every club he manages. He noted that Emery earned promotions with Lorca and Almería, repeatedly qualified Valencia for the Champions League and later won European titles with Sevilla and Villarreal. “If Unai coached Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Manchester City, his target would be winning the Champions League,” Vidagany said.

Still, he admitted Aston Villa remains some distance from Europe’s financial giants. UEFA’s financial regulations tie spending capacity directly to revenue, meaning clubs like Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid still operate at another level economically. “Aston Villa needs sustained success over several years to make that leap,” he said. In the meantime, the club relies on competitiveness, professionalism and a demanding culture shaped by Emery himself.

Vidagany also contrasted the culture surrounding coaches in England and Spain. He believes Premier League managers work with greater peace of mind because there is less instinctive pressure to sack the coach at the first sign of trouble. “In Spain, there’s often a feeling that the coach is always one bad result away from someone pressing the button,” he said. By comparison, English fans tend to focus less on ownership when they feel the club is being run properly.

For Vidagany, stability is everything. “The stability of the coach is the stability of the club,” he argued, insisting that once a club hires a manager, every decision should be aimed at helping him last as long as possible. He believes too many clubs fail because coaches become shields for ownership frustrations instead of being supported through difficult periods. “The most successful and stable clubs are always the ones with the fewest coaching changes.”

Since Emery arrived in November 2022, Aston Villa has reestablished itself among England’s elite. The club finished seventh in his first season, qualified for the Champions League the following year and now heads into the Europa League final against Freiburg after also securing another Champions League berth by defeating Liverpool 4-2.

Now, Aston Villa stands on the brink of history in Istanbul. The club has won 23 domestic and three continental trophies, but has not lifted silverware since the 2001 Intertoto Cup. Under Emery and a growing Spanish influence behind the scenes, Villa is chasing its first Europa League title and the fifth of Emery’s extraordinary managerial career.