Last season at Villa Park, it often felt like qualifying for the Champions League was akin to sneaking into a celebration they hadn’t been invited to.
Villa forced their way into the top five for the second time in three years, finishing fourth to comfortably secure a spot in club football’s top competition for 2026-27.
Emery achieved this after taking over a team that sat 14th in November 2022, only three points above the relegation zone.
Their resurgence came despite the need to sell to meet financial rules — for instance, Jacob Ramsey’s £40m move to Newcastle last summer.
Uefa’s Squad Cost Ratio caps spending on transfers, wages and agent fees at 70% of revenue — a constraint that has long frustrated Villa.
Selling Rogers was the simplest way to comply, but it also means a major outlay to replace the England forward, as well as Tielemans and Digne, is unlikely without further significant departures.
Fringe players are set to move on. Hull are interested in Leon Bailey, though their finances may require an initial loan, while Evann Guessand can also leave. Tammy Abraham, however, is content at Villa Park and not seeking a move.
Villa would have preferred to keep Tielemans but couldn’t afford to renegotiate his contract, which had two years to run, before United triggered his £35m release clause.
That fee is pure profit on the balance sheet, given he joined on a free from Leicester City in 2023.
With Tielemans and Rogers gone and Digne likely to follow, Villa have lost 489 Premier League appearances from the squad — along with two of the scorers from the Europa League final.