Unai Emery’s record PSG transfers including record Neymar deal

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Mbappe on loan 

©TM/IMAGO

Aston Villa have certainly made an impression on their return to UEFA’s premier club competition after a 41-year absence. Before qualifying for the Champions League with a top four finish in the Premier League last season, Villa hadn’t participated in the European Cup since 1992. The revival of the Midlands club across the last few seasons has been incredible and the catalyst has been Unai Emery.

Villa were languishing in the relegation places when Emery was appointed in October 2022 but Emery made a superb instant impact by guiding them to a seventh place finish and securing a Conference League place. Villa improved again last season to return to the top table in European football with the highlight of this Champions League campaign being a famous win over Bayern Munich. Emery is the most successful manager in the history of the Europa League with four titles and the Spaniard will need to rely on his vast European pedigree tonight when he faces former side PSG in the Champions League quarter-final.

Emery’s success at Sevilla landed him the PSG job ahead of the 2016/17 season but he failed to win Ligue 1 with Monaco lifting the title – one of only two occasions that PSG haven’t won the French top-flight title across the last decade. It was one game in the Champions League that shaped Emery’s spell in Paris when they lost 6-1 to Barcelona in the second-leg of their last 16 tie, after winning 4-0 in the first leg. Emery was dismissed at the end of the following season, despite winning Ligue 1 as he was unable to deliver the PSG hierarchy’s dream of winning the Champions League.

 As the graphic above illustrates, Emery was backed heavily during his two-year tenure, although the extent of his input on transfers is highly debatable. The 53-year-old was in charge when PSG spent €222 million to sign Neymar from Barcelona and that remains the record transfer fee in history. Only two more PSG signings feature in Emery’s top ten most expensive transfers across his full career in Julian Draxler and Goncalo Guedes. Emery made 12 signings in total at PSG at a combined total of €372.5m but Kylian Mbappé famously arrived on an initial-loan, while Dani Alves also joined on a free transfer from Juventus.