Yahoo News 'Wounded ' - John McGinn responds to Lothar Matthaus' comments about Unai Emery and Bayern Munich
John McGinn admits the job Unai Emery is performing at Aston Villa will inevitably attract admirers from elsewhere, but the club captain is confident his boss will remain at Villa Park for years to come.
Villa have made significant progress under Emery since he was appointed back in November 2022. The club qualified for Europe last season and are now targeting a top four finish and Europa Conference League glory. Villa have built their football department around Emery, who is on a long and lucrative contract.
German newspaper Bild claim that Emery is of interest to Bayern Munich, with Lothar Matthaus saying: “I would get Unai Emery from Aston Villa. He’s doing a great job there. He has a lot of experience at international level and has won titles with Sevilla, for example."
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Asked about Matthaus' comments, McGinn said: "I'm still a bit wounded. I said hello to Lothar Matthaus in Dubai and he absolutely pied me! I was actually in a lift with him and said hello. And he completely ignored me. That wasn't that good.
"He [Emery] is going to get linked with teams but I hope he's happy here. We love having him and his staff here and hopefully they are going to be here for many years to come." He added: "He can do what he wants and that's it."
Emery also batted away the links to Bayern Munich after Villa's 3-1 win over Bournemouth at the weekend. The victory increased Villa's cushion inside the top four to six points less than 72 hours after overcoming Lille in the Europa Conference League quarter finals.
"He's brilliant to watch [on the touchline]," McGinn said of his boss. "On Thursday when it went to extra-time and penalties, my performance did not deserve that, so just watching the way he picked the penalties, he was looking everyone up and down.
"You could see the experience he has in those situations. And we all knew how important today was. Now we have a nice gap although Tottenham have two games in hand but we would certainly rather have the points than the games.
"We have another big game Saturday and want to make it nine points clear and give ourselves a chance to do something special."
