An ex-Villa Scout makes a “number one” assumption regarding Unai Emery’s behind-the-scenes adjustments.

The rumor stems from the notion that West Brom, a team in the Midlands, has recently seen a large number of young players join their rivals. King questioned Aston Villa‘s recent decline in this regard, given that they were the FA Youth Cup winners only three years prior.

“It’s strange because Aston Villa used to have an excellent youth set-up, they really did,” King stated in an interview with Villa News. Their young squad and academy were run quite successfully when Bryan Jones and Alan Miller were there.

“They had Tony McAndrew, a former player of the highest caliber who served as the head coach there, and another former player named Gordon Cowans. Everyone who had made significant contributions to the team. When I worked at the club, I witnessed firsthand how well-run the academy was and how well-received they were by players around the Midlands, Great Britain, and Europe.

“Do they spend enough time looking at and working with the youth team or the academy when I look at a club with a foreign coach? I recall that the youth squad was given a lot of importance when John Gregory and Graham Taylor were there.

“Even on my second visit back to Villa, Villa remained the front-runner in that regard as far as I was concerned in terms of recruitment. They have a wide network of recruiters.It would be intriguing to see if Wolves, Villa, West Brom, and Birmingham City—teams from the Black Country—have achieved the desired outcomes at the young level. I saw the most recent FA Youth Cup final, which pitted Aston Villa versus Everton. Wayne Rooney was an Everton player at the time. Villa also had a strong squad, including several talented youth players.

“I believe it could be the connection that West Brom clearly has and is making a lot of effort in the area.” But what would Aston Villa have done with a three-year-old FA Youth Cup-winning academy team? Have they brought these new people in and moved all of them out? What caused that to happen? Did Emery wish to change, or was it Monchi’s fault? He wouldn’t know a lot about young football in the Midlands, in my opinion.

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