Unai Emery is encouraged by Aston Villa’s continued growth across all areas of the club

Unai Emery pointed to Aston Villa’s position in Deloitte’s Football Money League during his pre-Manchester United press conference to explain how the club are moving in the right direction, both on and off the pitch.

The annual publication, which profiles the highest revenue-generating clubs in world football, placed Villa 14th in 2025 with revenue of €450 million (£375 million), narrowly behind Atletico Madrid, who generated €454 million.

Behind Villa are Italian giants AC Milan and Juventus, followed by Newcastle United and SL Benfica. However, there is a €77 million gap between 13th-placed Atletico and 11th-placed Borussia Dortmund, while Chelsea, the lowest revenue-generating club among the Premier League’s traditional ‘big six’, brought in €584 million last year.

Nevertheless, Emery clearly sees plenty of positives in the direction Villa are heading, despite the financial gap that remains between them and the Premier League’s commercial heavyweights. So much so that he brought up the Money League at the end of his press conference on Friday.

“The level we have now, Aston Villa, we can analyse it and see where we are in the Deloitte Money ranking. We are 14th,” he explained. “It makes sense in the position we are in now and how we want to get better.”

Before leaving the media building at Bodymoor Heath, Emery took a moment to pull up the Money League on his phone to reinforce his point, telling reporters that it showed the club was in a positive position.

Earlier in his press conference, Emery was asked about the statement released by Nassef Sawiris on Wednesday night, which essentially confirmed that a new contract for the Villa boss was close to being agreed.

“I support the club’s statement. But what I can say is that the meeting we had with Nassef, Roberto (and Damian) on Wednesday was very positive,” he said.

“How the club is moving on is clear. How we are improving and how we are increasing our budget and revenue. This is clear.

“To keep the consistency is the challenge. For Nassef, for the club and for here as well at Bodymoor. And the step forward we are doing with the works at Villa Park with the new stand.

“The level we have now, Aston Villa, we can analyse it and see where we are in the Deloitte Money ranking. We are 14th. It makes sense in the position we are in now and how we want to get better.”