Aston Villa notebook: Transfer blessing, Rogers' tweaks and Nedeljkovic discovery
Calum Chambers left Aston Villa this summer after two years at the club - but the way his departure was handled by Unai Emery couldn't have been any better, according to the man himself.
Chambers, who was signed from Arsenal during Steven Gerrard's tenure at Villa Park, fell down the defensive pecking order following Emery's appointment as manager.
He reached this summer having played just eight times last season and knowing he'd likely have to move on in order to secure regular first team football. Still only 29, this is an important stage of his career and playing each week was the aim. At Cardiff City, he is doing so.
READ: Transfer fee, Covid, a reunion and Emery's chat to seal loan agreement
READ: Luiz, Diaby, Sanson and what happened to the ten players who left Villa
There was a brief renaissance last year for Chambers, amid Villa's injury crisis; he replaced Pau Torres at half time in the home win over Nottingham Forest in February and would go on to make more appearances in the run-in, starting on the final day at Crystal Palace. Despite his lack of game time, it's fair to say Emery left a positive impression on Chambers.
"I'd like to play as many games as I can and enjoy playing football. I have had a few years where it's been tough. I've not had the opportunity to play as much as I'd like. The conversations with Villa went really well," he told WalesOnline. "I've got so much respect for the manager there. He is such a good guy and an amazing manager as well.
"We had a really good relationship. Conversations with him were very positive and very easy, in that sense, in a situation which maybe wouldn't be easy somewhere else. It was all very professional, very good and we left on great terms. I want him to succeed at the club as much as anyone. That was a nice way for me to end it with the club and with the manager as well."
Rogers' work in progress
Morgan Rogers has shone in the opening weeks of Villa's season. The playmaker, who joined from Middlesbrough in January, returned for pre-season training this summer having sampled the Premier League and what it would demand from him in this Villa side. He intended to make himself a fixture under Emery in the starting XI and applied himself accordingly in preparation.
“Coming here, I saw some of the players we’ve got in the changing room that are just a different breed, different animals … I thought: ‘I need to be able to match that.’ At first, training was a shock to me, games were a shock. I knew I had to kick on and I feel like I’ve done that," he told the Guardian.
“Stronger, more muscle, fitter, everything – the lot. I wanted to be quicker. I didn’t want to start the season building up speed, I wanted to hit the ground running. I was itching to go after missing the last few games of last season. Nutrition-wise, I’m eating a lot better, much healthier.”
Kosta's eye opener
Young defender Kosta Nedeljkovic has been blown away by the 'tactically perfect' Emery since joining up with Villa this summer. The teenage right-back signed from Red Star Belgrade in the winter window of last season while remaining on loan in his native Serbia. Since, he has experienced pre-season under Emery and has featured in the Premier League.
Nedeljkovic has, in his words, all he needs to continue developing and maturing within the walls of Bodymoor Heath, in which the staff invest resource and time to extract the best from each and every player.
“If there’s one word, it’s passion. He has a very good relationship with all the players, he wants to help everyone, he is in the stadium from morning to night, always available to everyone,” Nedeljkovic said, via Sport Witness.
“The passion and that fervour in him, always with you with the right advice, constantly tells what and how to do it, demonstrates, if necessary. He scouts the rivals brilliantly, I think he is tactically perfect.
“Speed and motor skills are what everyone sees, but everything requires a lot of work, improvement, especially with us young players. The technique and the set up…I have great coaches at Aston Villa, we have a whole coaching staff dedicated to us and I think I have everything I need to improve.”
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