Since Unai Emery arrived at Aston Villa, plenty of players have left the club, and very few have gone on to perform better than they did under his management.
The only real example of a player excelling is Donyell Malen, who has scored goals for fun since joining Roma. Other than that, there are very few times Villa have regretted selling a player in the Emery era.
Because of that, there was a quiet feeling within the fanbase that although a host of key players left this summer, some of them may find the grass is not greener elsewhere, and could struggle to find the same form they did under Emery.
Early in the season, there is already some evidence to justify that line of thinking.
The most obvious case so far is Youri Tielemans, who has not hit the ground running at Manchester United.
Tielemans has drawn criticism from some of the United fans and his flaws – namely his lack of mobility – have been more exposed in Michael Carrick’s system, where Emery protected him. According to WhoScored, Tielemans has not yet translated his Villa performances to Old Trafford.
In matches where he played at least 45 minutes, he had an average match rating of 7.03 in all competitions for Villa last season. At United, his average rating has been 6.84 in the Premier League so far.
For context, last season that would have the difference between being the 8th best central/defensive midfielder out of 40 players to around the 18th best.
Lucas Digne is also not having a great time out in Paris so far.
He has only made two bench appearances in Ligue 1 and the Champions League combined, and although he was expected to be a backup, he too has received criticism for his play, as well as his application, accused by some PSG fans of treating his transfer as a retirement home.
Emi Martinez has been solid enough for Chelsea, but could have done better for several goals they have conceded, including multiple occasions where he has palmed an initial shot back into danger.
The World Cup winner has a 6.78 average match rating from WhoScored so far in the Premier League compared to 6.84 in all competitions for Villa last season. His replacement Zion Suzuki has an average 6.93 rating across six total appearances.
Morgan Rogers is faring the best having also moved to Chelsea, and this should have been expected as a big-money signing.
There was a strange revisionism that set in with some fans after the transfer, claiming Rogers was not actually that impressive at Villa.
If anything, he became underrated by the fanbase in the end, with too many remembering his more pedestrian performances and not the countless times he saved Villa or won them a game with a moment of brilliance.
Rogers already has three goals and an assist to his name in the league this season and an average WhoScored rating of 7.38, compared to 6.95 for Villa in the 2025/26 campaign.
That is slightly misleading, as he was arguably punished for playing virtually every game for Villa, diluting his performance at times. Taking his best 38 match ratings from all competitions (the length of the Premier League season), his average rating for Villa was 7.27.
Expecting Rogers to go to Chelsea and decline never really made sense, and although it will hurt some fans to see him thriving so quickly, the £116m fee is a pretty good consolation.
It also helps that Villa finally got their own campaign off the ground recently, winning back-to-back games before the international break.
Losing so many players who had made huge contributions to Villa this summer was painful, but as has been the case in the past, many of the departing characters have not exactly gone to another level away from Villa Park and without the tutelage of Emery.
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