WHY on Earth has Unai Emery taken a massive gamble to land damaged goods in the shape of Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford?
Because the Aston Villa boss loves bringing out the best in players and rehabilitating those who are seemingly lost causes.
It is why Emery was so keen to target tainted forward Rashford.
And it is why he has also snapped up former Real Madrid star Marco Asensio, whose career was on a similar downward spiral at Paris Saint-Germain.
Bombed out at Manchester United after boss Ruben Amorim accused him of not training hard enough, Rashford has made a smart choice in joining Villa to work with Emery.
If the Spaniard could get the best out of madcap Colombian striker Jhon Duran, he surely stands a chance of changing Rashford’s fortunes.
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Despite Duran’s public flirting with Chelsea and West Ham, his tantrums and timekeeping — regularly turning up late for training — Emery turned the petulant youngster from a raw £14.75m transfer punt into a £70m asset in the space of two years.
Talking about Villa’s interest in Chelsea star Joao Felix and attacker Asensio this week, Villa’s transfer chief Monchi revealed: “Emery has been able to recover players who were considered lost.
“If there is a coach in European or even world football who is characterised by recovering players and getting the most out of them, it’s Unai Emery.”
Emery also wanted to bring in Blues outcast Axel Disasi, but Chelsea have so far not wanted to do business with another club challenging for Europe.
The sale of Duran, 21, to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Saudi club Al-Nassr on Friday enabled Villa to afford the £400,000-a-week combined wages of Rashford and Asensio.
The challenge for the pair, Rashford in particular, will be to put in the effort that workaholic Emery demands.
As Villa skipper John McGinn put it: “We have to focus on football for 75 per cent of our life. You have to go to sleep thinking about football.”
If Rashford cannot get on board, United can forget about Emery triggering the £40m buyout clause for the forward.
Philippe Coutinho, the last fallen superstar signed by Villa, played for six months under Emery but did not show enough desire and was quickly shipped out on loan to Al-Duhail in Qatar — and has spent this season at Vasco da Gama in Brazil.
But those willing to graft have reaped the rewards of Emery’s intensity, with almost every Villa player having improved under the four-time Europa League winner.
Defender Ezri Konsa and striker Ollie Watkins are now regular England internationals while midfielder McGinn has his mojo back after looking a shadow of himself under former boss Steven Gerrard.
Lucas Digne, Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey and Morgan Rogers have also been transformed at a club playing in the Champions League for the first time.
Rashford can expect the same tough love which took Watkins’ game to the next level.
Emery showed Watkins clips of the previous strikers he worked with, such as Carlos Bacca and Edinson Cavani, highlighting their movement between the posts.
He then showed him his own movement and pointed out he was wasting energy running into the channels.
Crucially, Emery also reminds players how good they are — but how much better they must be to meet his standards.
Rashford will spend hours in detailed analysis meetings, studying his own game and his opponents’ weaknesses.
He will also work on a one-to-one basis with individual player coach Rodri — the Spanish coach Watkins credits for his improvement.
Rashford will be sick of hearing Emery’s buzzwords — ‘consistency’ and ‘demanding’ — while Rodri will push him towards his gaffer’s gold standards.
There are no half measures under Emery; the United misfit will either shape up or ship out.
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