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By IAN LADYMAN, FOOTBALL EDITOR Published: 23: 00 AEDT, 12 January 2026 | Updated: 01: 38 AEDT, 13 January 2026 32 View comments Manchester United made a tentative enquiry about Unai Emery before they appointed Ruben Amorim in the early winter of 2024 and the Aston Villa manager's stock continues to rocket skywards. There would be significant obstacles to United hiring Emery this time round. Villa would fight hard to keep the Spaniard, it would be extremely expensive and Emery is also a manager who likes to have complete control at a football club. Is he – or anyone – ever going to get that kind of autonomy at Old Trafford? No, frankly. Still, there is an argument to suggest that Emery is the top performing coach in the Premier League at the moment. There was a sense of inevitability about Villa’s FA Cup win at Tottenham on Saturday and though that says as much about Thomas Frank’s failing team as it does anything else, it served as another significant staging point in Villa’s brilliant year. Unai Emery's brilliant coaching and management has Aston Villa on the rise Indeed across the calendar year for 2025, only Arsenal – with 83 - and Manchester City – with 80 – managed to top Villa’s total of 76 league points. When you consider that Arsenal and City spent heavily on players across the two 2025 windows and Villa – restricted by financial rules issues – relied heavily on loans and free transfers, Emery’s achievements are placed in real context. Nobody is undermining what Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola have done at their clubs and their 14 goals between them in the FA Cup this weekend indicates the depth of the squads being assembled in north London and east Manchester. But Emery must have ruefully noted City’s £60m purchase of Antoine Semenyo last week. The 54-year-old is taking Villa places on the back of brilliant coaching and management of players. Imagine what he could actually do if he had big money to spend too. Spurs boss Frank continues to hurtle towards oblivion and it was hard to agree with his defence of Joao Paulinha following the melee that took place after Saturday’s game. Frank suggested Villa’s Ollie Watkins – who he knows from their time at Brentford – was deliberately provoking the Spurs players but it’s clear from the footage that Tottenham midfielder Paulinha went looking for a confrontation. Tottenham’s results are Frank’s biggest problem and he is being hampered by injuries to key players and his club’s apparent inertia in the transfer market. What happened to that Champions League windfall? But there seems to be a fresh issue around the conduct on or off the field of Tottenham players virtually every week and that as much as anything hints at chaos during Frank’s first season at the club. Of all the things to characterise a Frank squad, this would have been nowhere near the top of anybody’s list when the Dane took the job. It must change soon. The conduct of Tottenham's players has been repeatedly under question in recent weeks At United, meanwhile, they continue to talk about the importance of the club’s DNA as they search for a new long-term manager but why should this be more important at Old Trafford than anywhere else? When, for example, the club canvassed opinions of club legends like Sir Alex Ferguson, Bryan Robson and the late Sir Bobby Charlton six or seven years ago, it was decided that United should seek to play attractive and exciting football, behave with modesty off the field but arrogance on it and look to promote players from the youth academy whenever possible. That all sounded very nice but it’s actually no different to what any big club should be doing. So what makes United’s DNA different to that of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham or Newcastle, for example? Ultimately, United still need better players and a top class coach. Watching Brighton waltz through under absolutely no pressure as Danny Welbeck scored yet another goal for Brighton against his old club on Sunday was to be reminded of the fundamental problems that still run through the club. Casemiro, Leny Yoro and Matheus Cunha react after Sunday's defeat by Brighton Dissent towards referees is a curse yet it continues to escalate unchecked at the highest level. By the letter of the law (Law 12 as it happens) referee Simon Hooper was right to caution – and therefore send off – young United midfielder Shea Lacey for throwing the ball away against Brighton, rendering suggestions from the likes of Match of the Day’s Dion Dublin that the teenager should be spared because of his age and inexperience utterly fatuous. However, if referees such as Hooper are going to stick so rigidly to the law in these instances, why do they continue to accept such regular tirades of foul and abusive language without taking similar action? This is the real poison at the top end of our game and referees’ failure to tackle it is inexcusable. Dion Dublin said Shay Lacey should have been spared a red card - he was wrong Macclesfield, Wrexham and indeed Mansfield made sure it was a good weekend for the FA Cup – even if there were some worryingly one-sided games elsewhere – and interest in the competition from overseas remains strong. For example, US rights holders ESPN – who pay more than £50m a year for exclusive access to the tournament – made every single one of the weekend ties available via their streaming services to football fans in America. All those Grimsby fans living in Kentucky must have been delighted… The romance of the Cup doesn’t stop the naked profiteering with which we are so familiar of course. This season’s FA Cup ball that debuted at the weekend came with all the usual marketing fluff but what really stood out was the price. The new Mitre Ultimax Pro is available at a cool £130, which seems a lot for some leather. Meanwhile, as holders, Crystal Palace were given a special gold one to play with at Macclesfield. Had they progressed, they would have got to use it for every single round. That went well for them. Liam Gallagher took to X to congratulate Exeter teenager George Birch on his brilliant goal on his team’s 10-1 mauling at Manchester City. ‘Top goal and a top team, ’ said the Oasis frontman. The truth is, though, that Exeter let themselves down against City by producing a performance that was lacking in intensity and saw the League One team commit far too many basic errors. It was the same with Portsmouth as they went down 4-1 at home to Arsenal on Sunday. Arsenal’s set pieces are good enough without wingers been given free headers from corners. As time goes on and the gap widens between the top flight and the rest it is tempting to wonder if inferiority complexes are in play. Asked about the worst moment of his afternoon after Saturday’s game, Exeter manager Liam Caldwell said: ‘When we saw the City team sheet. ’ Exeter were playing one of the richest clubs in the country, a club with an enormous and talented squad. What did Caldwell really expect? Stan Collymore once wrote a brilliant column about how the vernacular of the dressing room can be hard to leave behind when players retire and emerge as adults into the real world for the first time. As it happened, it came after former West Ham striker Carlton Cole had used the word ‘holocaust’ when talking about the possibility of a heavy West Ham defeat at Manchester City in 2021. 'During my playing days, "Holocaust" and "Chernobyl" were used liberally in dressing rooms as words for "nightmare" or "woeful", ’ Collymore wrote in the Daily Mirror. 'Football speak is a weird mishmash of sayings, old and new, which players use as accepted language without even thinking about what words actually mean. ‘The majority of players have used those words at some point around the training ground. ‘Is that an excuse? No, of course not. But I hope it provides a little context. ' It was well put by Collymore and is pertinent again now that Shay Given has used the same desperately inappropriate word on the BBC when describing Wilfried Nancy’s disastrous spell at Celtic. Given – the former Newcastle, City and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper – has been out of the game for eight years and has been a TV pundit for a good while. He really has had long enough to learn some basics. Shay Given needs education and support after his on-air 'Holocaust' comment But what Given – and indeed others like him – need is education and support. Cancelling people for mistakes made out of ignorance takes us nowhere. Cole apologised and eventually returned to media work a wiser person. Given should now be afforded the same kind of second chance. Much more palatable and indeed excellent punditry was on offer from Paul Robinson as he sat next to Radio 5Live’s lead commentator John Murray at Macclesfield on Saturday. The former England and Spurs goalkeeper is an increasingly noticeable voice in a broadcast goalkeepers’ union now featuring Joe Hart, Given, Rob Green and David James. The BBC have realised that goalkeepers can offer insight in to matters beyond their specialist position. They are becoming fantastic to listen to. So when will the penny drop at Sky? Save of the weekend, meanwhile, came in an increasingly intriguing Scottish Premiership as Craig Gordon secured leaders Hearts a victory with a plunging effort to his left to deny Dundee an equaliser in the very last moment. Gordon is 43 now and actually started his career at Hearts just after the turn of the millennium. Having played with distinction for Sunderland and Celtic in between, he now has chance to finish his career with a Scottish title for his home town club. He will also go the World Cup this summer with Scotland. Some swansong is on offer. .. CRAIG. GORDON. ? pic. twitter. com/a Jb DUmj PPS Derby County and Leeds were fierce rivals back in the days when Terry Yorath played for the great Yorkshire club and it wasn’t always pleasant. But Derby were big enough to offer their FA Cup opponents a minute’s applause following Yorath’s sad passing last week. Leeds respectfully declined and will mark Yorath’s death before their home game with Fulham on Saturday.

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