Ollie Watkins reveals Unai Emery transfer promise before Aston Villa turnaround

Unai Emery gave Ollie Watkins a newfound confidence after placing his full trust in the striker following the sale of Danny Ings in January 2023.

Watkins had only scored one Premier League goal under Steven Gerrard before he doubled his tally for the season in the 4-0 win over Brentford ahead of Emery's appointment. The Spaniard has helped transform Watkins' game after the forward has bagged 32 times in 61 league games.

Watkins was nominated for Premier League Player of the Season last term, but lost out to Phil Foden. He was in the race for the Golden Boot up until the final games of the campaign, but still managed to win one award, the Playmaker of the Season for his 13 assists which was the most in the division.

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"He is never too high or too low," Watkins said about Emery on the High Performance Podcast. "The thing that I really like about the boss is that he drills into us that we are very privileged men to be doing what we are doing.

"Everyday we must be humble. He always respects the opposition and says it every time before a game, maybe 20 times. No matter where they are in the league, top or bottom, we have to respect them.

"It was a bit of a blur to be honest because there was so much rushing around and stuff like that. When he got out onto the training pitch he was very demanding. The video meetings are very long and deep. He got his points across quickly and clearly. He has changed the whole system around.

"I remember the night before the Man Utd game … I was only on three goals at the time. He said to me ‘by the end of the season you will score 15 goals, I have watched all of your clips at Brentford. You are an amazing player, I don’t need to buy another striker and I am going to stick with you’. He had all of this faith in me before I had even played a game for him.

"It’s something you want to hear. He has a lot of belief for me. I got to 15 that season. Obviously it’s not nice to be seeing other players being linked with the club in your position because it feels like, ‘why would you look elsewhere’, and there’s a doubt around you.

"You never know with those rumours, but when he said he wasn’t going to buy anyone and he sold Danny Ings. He said that I’d play so that faith that he put into me was nice. A new belief and confidence came from that. It took pressure off me because he was so confident I was going to do well."

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