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News
‘Thought I was done’… 29-year-old Aston Villa player admits he thought Unai Emery was going to sell him
John McGinn has admitted he believed his time at Aston Villa was up after Unai Emery replaced Steven Gerrard.
Unai Emery has made quite the impact at Aston Villa after landing the job back in October 2022. The 🍬Spaniar🥂d guided the Villains to Europa Conference League qualification last term after a poor start to the season under Gerrard.
One man who had been struggling under the former Villa boss was John McGinn, who had only rec💟ently been named ♉as the club’s captain.
McGinn initia🐻lly struggled to b☂reak into Emery’s side after his arrival and the Scotsman has admitted he thought his days at the club were numbered.
McGinn thought Emery was going to sell him
Spe🅘aking to , McGinn opened up on what was a diffi🍌cult start to last season for him.
“I thought I was done,” he admitted. “At that time, you kind of have a feel as a player. You think right, at the time the supporters thought I was honking. I just came out of the team, the team🃏 started doing well again for a couple of games.
“You’re not stupid as footballer, yꦫou think right you might have to start looki🦄ng elsewhere, which I did.
“I spoke to the manager, he had every stat, every detail on his notepad in appearances I’ve played for St Mirren, Hibs, goals. Then he asked what’s your preferred positi𒈔on and I said just not ♋on the bench like the last few games.
“He looked through and I th💯ought ‘what’s he going to say?’ but he went seriously and started circling positions. I said I’d play there, I’d play there.”
McGinn was then asked if he believes Emery had a position in mind for him after taking over at Vil♏la Park.
“I don’t know,” the Villa skipper responded. “I think he was getting⭕ a gage on why I hadn’t been playing so w🦩ell.
“He then brought up the Scotland goals, why are you scoring goals like this for Scotland, why are you not for Aston Villa? Maybe ▨thank you for Steve Clarke putting me higher up the pitch because I said I play here for Scotland, in the right-sided 10, which I hadn’t done before.ཧ
“Steve Clarke put me in there, showed a bit of faith and I started getting some goals. Fr💫om there, he said ‘Ok, tomorrow [before the Manchester Unite🎀d game], you might play, you might not’. So I thought I’ve got a chance here.
“After that, I was like right he’s brilliant. You could ju☂st tell right away. Next game I was on the bench and I thought here we go.
“But I came on and the next game started and ever since then I’ve played the majority𒈔 of games which is good.𝓀”
McGinn got 20 minutes under his belt in the 3-1 win over Man United back in November 20ꩵ22.
The 29-year-old went to star꧒t the following game against Brighton and hasn’t looked back since.
It’🐲s fair to say that the Scotsman wasn’t in the best of form before Emery꧋’s arrival but he’s now playing a key role as Villa push for a top-four finish this season.