Former Australia batter David Warner has pleaded guilty to drink driving, after being charged following a random breath test in Sydney in April.

The plea had been expected after his lawyer, Bobby Hill, said after a court hearing in May that the cricketer accepted responsibility and knew his behaviour had been “foolish” and “reckless”.

Warner had drunk three glasses of wine at a friend’s apartment before getting in his car on Easter Sunday, Hill said at the earlier hearing.

Sentencing has been set for 18 August, when Warner faces a minimum disqualification from driving of six months, a potential fine of up to A$2,200 ($1,500; £1,150) and a potential prison sentence of up to nine months.

Warner, who retired from international cricket in 2024, is currently captain of Pakistan Super League side Karachi Kings as well as being captain of the Sydney Thunder.

Cricket NSW chief executive Lee Germon said after he was charged in April that the allegations were “concerning” and that the body took them “very seriously”.

“At Cricket NSW, we are strong advocates for safe driving, not drink-driving,” he said.

Hill said at the May hearing that Warner knew what he had done was wrong. “He accepts that was a reckless decision, a foolish decision to get in his car instead of taking an Uber.”

“It’s not a crime to have a glass of wine on the day of the lord’s resurrection. In fact, some would consider that completely appropriate,” he added.

“His crime is, as I said, choosing a foolish plan A instead of a plan B.”

When Kevin Keegan passed away on Monday, tributes poured in from across the football world.

In a remarkable playing career, Keegan represented Scunthorpe United, Liverpool, Hamburg, Southampton, Newcastle United, Blacktown City and England. He would go on to manage Newcastle (twice), Fulham, England and Manchester City.

And at the majority of those clubs, Keegan made a significant impact. This is part of the reason why, when he died at the age of 75, fans of so many teams spoke so fondly about him.

The Athletic asked members of our newsroom to reflect on Keegan and what he meant to fans and those who followed his clubs. James Pearce, Sebastian Stafford-Bloor, Chris Waugh, Justin Guthrie, Oliver Kay and Jack Pitt-Brooke share their thoughts below.

Liverpool

Kevin Keegan’s first meeting with legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly left a lasting impression.

It was May 1971 and the then-20-year-old Yorkshireman, who had caught the eye of head scout Geoff Twentyman playing in midfield for fourth-tier Scunthorpe, was waiting patiently outside Anfield to discuss his impending move.

“They were doing up the Main Stand at Anfield so they were using these temporary offices,” Keegan told me in 2009 during an interview to mark 50 years since Shankly’s appointment.

“The only place to sit was on a dustbin outside so I sat there talking to my manager at the time, Ron Ashman, while Bill was inside. After a while Bill came out, shook my hand and beckoned me over to his Capri to take me for my medical down near the docks.

Keegan scoring for Liverpool in the 1974 FA Cup final (Roger Jackson/BIPNA/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“From the moment I met Bill I just gelled with him. I was from mining stock and so was he. I think he saw something in me that reminded him of himself. He wanted to help me, and he did, massively. Apart from my parents, Bill was the most important person in my life. He brought me to the club, he believed in me and he inspired me. That first meeting with him changed my life forever.”

Keegan cost Liverpool £33,000, and it proved to be one of the shrewdest pieces of business in the history of English football. He went straight into the side for the first game of the 1971-72 season against Nottingham Forest and scored the opener in a 3-1 win at Anfield.

Shankly’s decision to turn him into a striker was inspired as he formed a potent double act with John Toshack and earned hero status on the Kop. As well as his dazzling talent, supporters loved the tireless work rate and enthusiasm of their No 7.

“I didn’t expect to get in Liverpool’s first team so quickly,” Keegan admitted. “I was a kid who went straight from Scunthorpe in the Fourth Division to playing in front of 51,000 at Anfield against Forest. It meant I never actually played a reserve team game for the club. That was one of the things about Bill. He wasn’t scared to put someone in. If he thought you were good enough, that was it.”

Keegan scored 22 goals in 1972-73 as the club’s seven-year trophy drought was ended in style with both the league title and the UEFA Cup. Keegan netted twice in the first leg of the final as Liverpool overcame Borussia Monchengladbach 3-2 on aggregate.

He repeated the trick a year later with another brace in the FA Cup final as Newcastle United were brushed aside 3-0 at Wembley. However, Shankly’s decision to resign in the summer of 1974 hit him hard.

“I don’t know anyone who saw it coming,” Keegan said. “I remember someone called me and said: ‘Have you heard about Shanks?’ My first thought was ‘he’s been involved in an accident’. When I was told he had resigned, I didn’t believe it. There was talk after every season about Bill threatening to quit and the board talking him out of it. But when I spoke to Bill he said: ‘No, I’m finished this time.’ It was a massive shock.”

Keegan, left, celebrating the 1974 FA Cup final win with Alec Lindsay (Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Keegan continued to shine under Shankly’s successor, Bob Paisley, as Liverpool won the league and UEFA Cup double once again in 1975-76. He scored in both legs of the final against FC Bruges and was crowned Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year.

But midway through the following campaign he announced his intention to leave in the summer to play abroad.

Keegan signed off in style, winning his third league title and helping Liverpool clinch their first European Cup with a 3-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach in Rome. He described it as “the perfect ending” and waved goodbye, having scored 100 goals in 323 appearances for Liverpool across six seasons.

“Bill’s departure certainly played a part in my decision to leave,” he said. “No disrespect to Bob, but when Bill left, half the club went for me as well.

“Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed playing for Bob. We had some great times and won the European Cup. But it wasn’t the same after Bill left. I just didn’t enjoy going into the club as much when he wasn’t there. Nobody could replace Bill.

“Bill took Liverpool by the scruff of the neck and put down the foundations on which the club’s been built. I played under a lot of good managers, but none were in the same county, let alone the same street, as Bill. I took a lot from what Bill taught me into my own management career. Things like if you treat people the right way and give them the chance to flourish, then you will get the best out of them. Bill was unique, and the man meant everything to me.”

Keegan recording his 1972 single ‘It Ain’t Easy’ (Victor Blackman/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The feeling was mutual with Shankly dedicating an entire chapter of his autobiography to Keegan, who he described as “the inspiration” of the second great team he built.

Sir Kenny Dalglish, who was signed from Celtic as Keegan’s replacement in 1977, led the tributes on Monday: “Kevin was one of the very best players of his generation and wore Liverpool’s famous number seven shirt with great distinction.

“His achievements on the pitch were exceptional, but he was also a wonderful person and a genuine gentleman. Football has lost one of its true greats.”

James Pearce

Hamburg

You see Kevin Keegan everywhere in Hamburg. Even now, his image is on lampposts and bus stops, in train stations and on the side of bins. He spent three years playing for Hamburg between 1977 and 1980, but that was such a profound moment in the club’s history that the stickers recognising his contribution and commemorating his time here still decorate the city.

Outside the Volksparkstadion, in the shadow of the stands, there’s a mural dedicated to him, too. It’s abstract and slightly out of focus, but it’s still unmistakably Keegan, with his crooked arm saluting another goal.

There were 40 in total, from 113 games across all competitions. His partnership with Horst Hrubesch, a great lighthouse of a centre-forward, took the club to their first Bundesliga title in 1979, making them German champions for the first time in 19 years. The season after, Keegan and Hamburg went all the way to the European Cup final, only to lose to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest.

It’s easy to look back in Hamburg; the club have not won anything in over 40 years. Naturally, local hearts yearn for the days with which Keegan is associated. Yes, that’s important context, but it’s not the extent of it.

Keegan playing for Hamburg in 1979 (AFP via Getty Images)

Uwe Seeler is the club’s highest goalscorer and greatest player. Nobody will ever change that. But Keegan was one of the first world-class players to move to, rather than leave, Germany. From Liverpool, too.

The Bundesliga had only begun in 1963, marking the true beginning of professionalism. Before that, in a trend which lasts to this day, the very best players were always tempted away, to Italy or Spain, towards salaries that German football could never provide.

In refreshing contrast, Keegan’s move not only doubled the German transfer record (to £500,000), it also delivered one of the world’s very best players. Thomas Huerner, who reports for Sueddeutsche Zeitung, explains: “He was a star; for the first time, the Bundesliga had brought a player of that calibre to Germany instead of losing him to a foreign league. Naturally, he was also a symbol of the Hamburg side that was a major force at the time.”

A star is right. When Keegan won his back-to-back Ballons d’Or in 1978 and 1979, he became the first Hamburg player to win the award while still at the club. Almost half a century later, he remains the last to do so, and it’s very difficult to imagine that changing any time soon.

There are other stories, of course.

Keegan playing for Hamburg in the 1980 European Cup final (Allsport/Getty Images)

Famously, having read an interview in which Keegan professed to missing British cereal, the club’s fans organised and paid for a shipment of Shredded Wheat.

And then the anecdote that everybody knows: meet a German person named Kevin born in the early 1980s and the chances are that they were named Keegan. Between the football, the success and the fashionable perm, that was the kind of popularity that Machtig Maus (Mighty Mouse) had.

Today, it’s reverence rather than popularity; his is a name that echoes in Hamburg. No, Germans do not really name their sons Kevin anymore, but until the day he died nobody loved Keegan — the person or the player — any less.

On Tuesday, which was also the fourth anniversary of Uwe Seeler’s death, club CFO Eric Huwer led the players in a moment of reflection at their training camp in Austria.

Bewegender Moment des Innehaltens: Wir haben am Vormittag zu Beginn unserer Trainingseinheit gemeinsam mit unseren Fans eine Gedenkminute für unsere Vereinslegenden Kevin Keegan und Uwe Seeler abgehalten.

Keegan war am Vortag im Alter von 75 Jahren an den Folgen seiner… pic.twitter.com/FxXTMyAMA5

— Hamburger SV (@HSV) July 21, 2026

“Kevin Keegan was a champion. He was a two-time Ballon D’Or winner, a Bundesliga champion with Hamburg and a European Cup finalist,” he said, “and he has left us far too soon. Rest in peace, Mighty Mouse.”

Sebastian Stafford-Bloor

Southampton

There are under-the-radar transfers that shock the football world, and then there was the mind-boggling day in February 1980 that Kevin Keegan — England captain and reigning Ballon D’Or winner — was announced as Southampton’s newest signing in a surprise press conference.

Exciting, hard-working and down to earth, his star quality far surpassed anything seen at The Dell before — or at Southampton since.

The Southampton shop with a photo of Keegan in the window in 1980 (Duncan Raban/Allsport/Getty Images)

For two glorious years sporting his trademark perm, he played some magical football to take the team to new highs of sixth place and a foray into Europe.

As another club great in former team-mate and close friend Mick Channon described Keegan when speaking to the Press Association, as reported by the Daily Echo, this week, “Kevin came to Southampton a Ballon d’Or winner, but you wouldn’t have known; he had time for everyone and never once acted like the star that he was.”

Keegan playing for Southampton (Duncan Raban/Allsport/Getty Images)

Keegan spearheaded a golden era at Southampton as he won the golden boot in 1982 and summed them up (and many iterations of Southampton team after it) with his trademark honesty: ”We’re a side that likes to go forward, we’re not good enough to defend and win games, so we have to attack.”

For a generation of fans, he is the best player to ever pull on the shirt. Southampton simply do not attract players like Keegan, but for a short time he was, inexplicably, theirs.

Nancy Froston

Newcastle United

The modern version of Newcastle United would not exist without Keegan. Nothing about that statement is an exaggeration.

“I want people to dream about their football club,” Keegan told The Times in 2008. “They should; we should all be dreamers at heart.”

Eminently quotable and enduringly positive, Keegan described managing Newcastle as like “riding the black-and-white tiger” — and he went about doing it in his own unique style. No single person, before or since, has ever tapped into the Newcastle fanbase and made them tick like him. Nobody has ever had them dancing to their merry tune in quite the same way.

Across three separate stints at St James’ Park, one as a player and two as a manager — all extraordinary for differing reasons — he proved himself to be the guiding star of Tyneside.

Keegan playing for Newcastle in 1984 (Allsport/Getty Images)

In 1982, while still an England international, Keegan shocked the footballing world by trading First Division Southampton for Newcastle, who had just finished their fourth-successive campaign in the second tier.

As someone who fed on emotion and belonging throughout his career, Keegan had always felt the pull of Newcastle United, the club of his father. Joe, a Geordie exiled to Yorkshire in search of work, regaled his son with stories of Jackie Milburn and the three FA Cup triumphs of the 1950s.

Keegan was desperate to awaken the sleeping Tyneside beast and get Newcastle back to the top flight and immediately announced himself to his adoring new fanbase, scoring the winning goal on his debut against Queens Park Rangers at St James’.

During his second season, the 1983-84 campaign, he formed part of a legendary frontline with Peter Beardsley and Chris Waddle, claiming a third-placed finish in the Second Division and promotion.

Across 78 league appearances, Keegan scored 48 times, but rather than stick around as a diminished forward losing their pace, he famously departed St James’ in a helicopter, while still dressed in his kit, following his testimonial against Liverpool in May 1984. A 13-year-old Alan Shearer was ballboy that day and dreamed of emulating his boyhood idol. “My Hero. My manager. My friend. Sleep easy Boss”, Shearer posted on X after Keegan’s death.

If Keegan had first captured Newcastle supporters’ imagination during his playing days, he truly transformed their psyche during his first stint as manager. Despite arriving in February 1992 with no coaching experience whatsoever, Keegan saved Newcastle from the precipice. As Sir John Hall, the former owner, regularly recounted, Newcastle was a “dead-end club going nowhere” who “faced bankruptcy” if they slid into the third tier.

Keegan alongside first team coach Terry McDermott in 1992 (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Keegan not only rescued Newcastle from relegation in 1991-92; the following campaign his team romped to the second-division title and surged into the Premier League. Their swashbuckling, attacking style earned his side the moniker of “The Entertainers”.

Never short of ambition, following promotion Keegan declared that Newcastle were coming for Manchester United’s title. Third- and sixth-placed finishes followed, before the glorious but ultimately doomed 1995-96 campaign, which featured David Ginola, Philippe Albert and Les Ferdinand in their pomp. Newcastle blew a 12-point lead, and Keegan is best remembered for his “I would love it” rant live on TV, at the point the title was slipping away, yet the ridicule that followed should not diminish the magic he engendered.

A fan bows to Keegan after the 5-0 win over Manchester United (Stu Forster/Allsport/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The world-record acquisition of Shearer in July 1996 suggested Keegan was just getting started, but there was devastation on Tyneside when he resigned the following January following disagreements with the direction of the club.

His unexpected return as manager in January 2008 was heralded by supporters as “The Second Coming” (again), but it quickly turned sour. A passionate, principled man, Keegan felt he was having signings forced upon him by Mike Ashley, the unpopular owner, including players he was told to watch on YouTube. He resigned in September 2008, eventually winning a constructive-dismissal case.

There was no clearer demonstration of Keegan’s connection with supporters than when Wor Flags, the fan group, showcased his quote across the Gallowgate End in 2018. “Newcastle United is bigger than anyone,” it read. “It hurts, I know, but just keep going. He is only one man, we are a city, a whole population. Trust me.”

Keegan’s emotional return to Newcastle in 2008 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

And trust him Newcastle fans implicitly did. Among Ashley’s many sins, none were more wicked than the alienation of club legends, particularly Keegan. He only returned to St James’ once, in disguise, as he never felt welcome again under Ashley.

Yet the wider Newcastle fanbase always welcomed him as their monarch. To supporters, Keegan was, and will always be, ‘King Kev’.

The man affectionately known as ‘The Messiah’ led this club and its people from mediocrity and potential oblivion to (almost) the very top and to fantasy. He allowed fans to dream, to believe. That was his most powerful and lasting gift.

Chris Waugh

Fulham

Times were changing on the Thames. Mohamed Al Fayed, who would later be accused of sexually assaulting the club’s women’s team captain, had swept into Fulham, transforming the club overnight.

Keegan would be appointed in September 1997 as chief operating officer, with Fulham a mid-table side in the old Second Division, looking up at Northampton Town and Bristol Rovers.

Keegan had only resigned from Newcastle in January, leaving Tyneside in a state of despair. Their loss was Fulham’s gain.

His pulling power was immediate. Paul Peschisolido became Fulham’s first £1million signing, then Chris Coleman arrived for £2m — fees that had been unimaginable in the third tier. Ray Wilkins was appointed manager and Fulham finished sixth — but Al Fayed was not satisfied, dismissing Wilkins and handing the job to Keegan.

Keegan managing Fulham (Jamie McDonald/Allsport via Getty Images)

Fans were inspired, and more big-name players followed, including Peter Beardsley, Keegan’s former Newcastle team-mate. Excitement began to escalate. “When Keegan rang to try and sign me, I literally turned round on the motorway and drove to Craven Cottage to meet him,” former Fulham defender Rufus Brevett told BBC Radio London on Monday.

Building a free-flowing, attack-minded squad was the priority, but Keegan’s appeal stretched beyond the dressing room. He made a point of replying personally to supporters’ letters, small gestures that deepened the bond between the club and the man charged with accelerating its transformation.

Armed with a talented squad, Keegan’s Fulham played swashbuckling, attacking football that fans instantly fell in love with. Sound familiar?

Home attendances jumped by more than a quarter as Keegan oversaw one of the greatest seasons in the club’s history. Fulham cantered to the Second Division title, racking up a club-record 101 points to earn a second promotion in three seasons.

Keegan celebrating promotion in April 1999 (Phil Cole/Allsport via Getty Images)

England soon came calling, but Keegan initially only agreed to take charge for four matches. He insisted he still wanted to lead Fulham’s drive for the top flight.

Two games in the England dugout were enough: Keegan admitted he had “got the bug” and resigned from Fulham in May 1999. He would not be the manager to take them into the Premier League, but he had changed what the club believed was possible.

After accepting the full-time England role, he told reporters he had no choice but to “listen to his heart”. For Keegan, there was never any other way.

Justin Guthrie

England

In Kevin Keegan’s mind, there was no greater honour than to represent his country. He did so 63 times as a player, 31 of them as captain, and a further 18 times as manager. It was not for want of effort that he was to look back on his international career as a rare source of disappointment.

The 1970s are often regarded as the wilderness years for the England team. They missed out on qualification for the World Cup in 1974 and 1978 and for the European Championship in 1972 and 1976. Keegan appeared in just two tournaments: the 1980 European Championship finals, in which they were eliminated at the group stage, and the 1982 World Cup.

Looking back, it is hard to work out precisely why England struggled over that period. Part of it was that tournaments were smaller, so qualification — particularly for a four-team European Championship in 1972 and 1976 — was much harder than it is today.

In England training in 1975 (Roger Jackson/Central Press/Getty Images)

The most common criticism was that England lacked technical quality, intelligence and a settled way of playing as other nations became more sophisticated. But over the 10 years in question, English clubs won the European Cup six times, always with a strong nucleus of English players under English managers. Nobody could accuse Keegan of lacking the quality to perform against elite-level European opposition, given his success with Liverpool and Hamburg.

That 1982 campaign was typical of the misfortune that plagued Keegan’s international career. Having waited so long to qualify for the World Cup, he found himself struggling with a back injury that ruled him out of the first group stage. In desperation, he borrowed a car from the hotel receptionist, drove 250 miles from Bilbao to Madrid airport, flew to West Germany for treatment and returned in the hope of getting the green light to play.

He came off the bench for the closing stages of a 0-0 draw with Spain, “fluffing the sort of header I had scored all my life”, and England were out. It was his last appearance for England. Bobby Robson, upon taking over as manager, left him out of his first squad without telling him first. Keegan, bruised, as good as closed the door on a recall. He never played for England again.

Managing England in September 2000 (Clive Brunskill/ALLSPORT via Getty Images)

It was partly out of a sense of unfinished business with England — as well as the aforementioned pride in his country — that led him to answer the FA’s call in early 1999 following the abrupt departure of Glenn Hoddle.

He initially took over on a temporary basis, in combination with managing Fulham, and made an upbeat start with a 3-1 win over Poland, but he quickly found the job stifling. He did not like the media scrutiny or the politics of working for the FA. He led England to Euro 2000, but England played poorly and were knocked out in the group stage. Twenty months after arriving in a blaze of glory, or at least promise, he resigned in the toilets next to the home dressing room at Wembley minutes after defeat by Germany in a World Cup qualifier.

“I gave it my best shot,” he said in his autobiography. “But I had also come to realise it wasn’t the job it was cracked up to be. I didn’t enjoy dealing with the FA. I didn’t like the way I had so little time with the players. I didn’t like the long, frustrating periods between games when the job could feel soulless and it wasn’t easy knowing how to fill my time, sometimes bored rigid. I didn’t like all sorts of things.

“As great an honour as it was, England didn’t suit my style of management.”

Oliver Kay

Manchester City

When Keegan took over at Manchester City, the whole club needed a lift. They had just been relegated to what is now the Championship and Joe Royle, who had worked wonders with consecutive promotions, had run out of steam.

Keegan was precisely what City needed. He came in with energy, positivity and an exciting vision for the type of team you could be in the second tier. This was a different era, when most teams at that level would have played direct, physical football. But Keegan wanted to do it differently. So he paired two brilliant No 10s together, buying Eyal Berkovic from Celtic and Ali Benarbia from Paris Saint-Germain. With Shaun Goater and Darren Huckerby up front, and Shaun Wright-Phillips on the right wing, they were unstoppable, playing some of the most remarkable football fans had ever seen. They walked the league, finishing with 99 points and 108 goals.

More than anything else, that team proved what a romantic optimist Keegan was, to dream of playing football like that in the second tier, and to be brave enough to deliver it, telling his players to go out and entertain the fans. Even now, if you go back on YouTube and watch, the football is thrilling, like Benarbia’s backheel assist to Goater against Gillingham.

Keegan celebrating the 4-1 win against Manchester United in 2004 (Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

City rode the positive wave in Keegan’s second season, signing Nicolas Anelka from PSG and ending up ninth, their best Premier League finish for 10 years. Keegan had reestablished City not just as a good team, but a team who played entertaining football with maverick players, precisely what the fans had wanted for so long.

For City fans of a certain age, this team was the best that they grew up with, and the memories are even sharper because 2002-03 was their last ever season at Maine Road.

Of course it could not last forever. Keegan’s policy of signing expensive experienced players eventually caught up with him — David Seaman, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and so on — and Keegan’s City ran out of gas. He was replaced by Stuart Pearce, his former player, in March 2005.

But Keegan’s bravery, his optimism and his romantic ideal will live on as memories for City fans forever.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

In Tuesday’s Transfer DealSheet, The Athletic reported Aston Villa had held dialogue with Chelsea regarding the potential transfer of Alejandro Garnacho.

Later in the day, discussions began to accelerate, with Villa moving to close the deal, which centred on an initial loan with a conditional obligation to buy. Villa will pay a significant portion of Garnacho’s salary.

The 22-year-old had become an option to fulfil Unai Emery’s priority position of a fast winger who could run beyond opposition defences. Garnacho had joined a small list of potential recruits, which included Paris Saint-Germain’s Ibrahim Mbaye and Crysencio Summerville from West Ham United, who is now closing in on a move to Al Hilal. Villa’s scouting department had tracked Mbaye closely for a long period, with the club holding talks across different windows.

Representatives of players who Villa have discussed before say the club are constantly fluid with targets, with Emery frequently changing his mind. Even this time last week, Villa were holding serious conversations about what an agreement would look like for Summerville.

So if Garnacho is to sign, recruiting another winger is not ruled out for later in the window, yet Villa will have to assess the lay of the land in terms of who has departed and, directly linked, the financial scope they have.

Garnacho’s move would be separate to the deal that has taken Morgan Rogers to Stamford Bridge in a club-record £117million (€137m, $157m) transfer. Yet it does raise some pertinent questions. 

As happened last summer, Villa have recently explored signing a team-mate of Garnacho’s, Nicolas Jackson, permanently. Emery is a long-standing admirer since they worked together at Villarreal, though finding an agreement will be expensive.

Chelsea enjoy a strong relationship with Villa, which assisted in negotiations for Rogers, with Villa co-owner Nassef Sawiris having the final say.

Previously, both clubs have shown an openness to discuss buying and selling. In the summer of 2024, Ian Maatsen joined Villa from Chelsea for a fee worth £37.5m, with academy graduate Omari Kellyman moving in the opposite direction. The Premier League, having asked for proof of the justification in paying that fee for Maatsen, approved the deal.

Over the previous two seasons, Villa and Chelsea have both incurred fines for breaching UEFA’s squad cost rules and have sailed close to the wind with profit and sustainability regulations (PSR).

Chelsea were asking for £42.5m for Garnacho this summer and for him to leave permanently, which would represent a small profit on the £40m they paid in August 2025 to sign him from Manchester United. Yet progress with Villa was made on an initial loan, and most importantly, a conditional obligation.

Multiple Villa sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, insist Garnacho is regarded as a market opportunity. Emery wanted to sign him last summer, but Champions League football, which Chelsea had and Villa then did not, appealed to the Argentina international. 

Villa felt Roma were leading the pursuit of Garnacho this summer, though Emery pushed to convince the player to move to the Midlands. Villa believed that, through Emery’s conviction, they had convinced the winger to join.

Should Garnacho’s move be finalised, it would have Emery’s fingerprints all over it, with the Spaniard the key advocate for the deal. Admittedly, given Chelsea want to offload him, an agreement is more straightforward than it is to negotiate with PSG for Mbaye, who is likely to prove more difficult to prise away from Paris for any buying club.

Those close to Villa say Rogers was worth 14 goals a season, so sourcing a replacement was critical. This was factored in when pursuing West Ham United captain Jarrod Bowen earlier in the summer. The responsibility on Garnacho’s shoulders, therefore, would be to make a swift impact.

Emery’s inclination for wide forwards is well known, but acutely demonstrated in Garnacho’s case. He wanted an attacker who could add pace, directness and an ability to play from both flanks. It has been discussed that a left winger would not be too much of an issue, which is Garnacho’s favoured position, considering John McGinn can tuck in from the other flank and ensure Villa maintain two No 10s, as is Emery’s customary structure. 

Villa’s desire to address this position has grown in prominence over the summer, with Jadon Sancho’s loan ending, Evann Guessand and Leon Bailey available to leave and Villa having the money to spend from Rogers’ sale. Club record signing Johan Manzambi is regarded as a direct replacement for Rogers.

Whoever comes in will find that Emery allows the dressing room to police itself. He has never fined a player for indiscretions since arriving. Despite his demanding nature, he does not tend to mind what a player does off the pitch, as long as they are performing on it.

This applies to maintaining high standards in training, which are so taxing that new signings can struggle initially and is perhaps why, until this summer, Villa have maintained such a similar nucleus to their squad. Last season, for instance, Ollie Watkins kept being picked over Tammy Abraham, even during his goal drought, because Watkins was considered to be displaying a better level of application and quality in training. Garnacho will have to meet those standards.

In certain cases, though, Emery and his staff will take a hands-on approach, wanting to help instil focus when there is a player they believe in but whom he feels may have lost their way.

Marcus Rashford’s acquisition in January 2025 served as an illustrative example. As did Marco Asensio that same window or, to a lesser extent, Sancho. Even the relentless pursuit of Joao Felix across at least three windows underlines his willingness to sign players who have question marks against them.

“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,” Monchi, Villa’s former sporting director, once told El Partidazo de COPE.

Emery believed Rashford at his best was one of the most threatening attackers in the world and backed himself and his support network to rejuvenate the player. In their quest for Champions League qualification back then, Villa took a bet on Rashford providing an immediate impact, with senior figures stating that his salary — Villa covered 80 per cent of it — was double that of their next highest earner.

With Garnacho, who was pictured wearing a home Villa shirt with ‘Rashford 9′ on the back last summer (the pair played together at Manchester United), Emery feels he can refine the raw materials that made him one of the most exciting young talents in Europe a few years ago.

Pertinently, one of Garnacho’s best games at Chelsea came in their impressive 4-1 victory at Villa Park in February. He set up Joao Pedro for the Brazilian’s hat-trick goal and created more chances and had more touches in the opposition box than anyone else.

For all the silliness and petulance that has plagued Garnacho’s career, he can look, at times, drained of confidence. This has affected his performances, causing him to become hesitant to take players on and utilise his best characteristics, which are his pace and one-versus-one trickery.

Emery typically operates with one wide player and will demand Garnacho becomes serious in his defensive diligence. In the many one-on-one scenarios he will be presented with, he must be more intelligent and varied in his decision-making. Emery specialises in bringing consistency to players’ games, instilling good habits on and off the field to help them fulfil their potential. It is why he tends to have no hesitation when tasked with rejuvenating a player’s career.

Emery wanted Garnacho last summer when Villa ended up with Sancho, another unwanted United winger. Having convinced the wide player that coming under his tutelage is the right next step, following talks with Chelsea post-Rogers’ sale, Garnacho is set for a critical, arguably career-defining, 12 months.

What is the financial significance of this move?

Villa’s pursuit of Garnacho is a curious one, and not just because he flattered to deceive during his first season at Stamford Bridge. Through signing a Chelsea player — any Chelsea player — Villa run the risk of taking a scythe to the very chunky profit they’ve enjoyed by selling Rogers to the London club.

Morgan Rogers was part of England’s World Cup squad (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Each of Villa and Chelsea are currently required to comply with settlement agreements they entered into with UEFA a year ago. Those came on the back of the two English clubs breaching the governing body’s football earnings rule, which limits the size of financial loss clubs can record, after deductions for ‘good’ expenditure on infrastructure, youth teams and the like.

The two agreements differ but one thing is clear for both: they each need to move away from big losses.

English clubs, whether in a settlement agreement or otherwise, have increasingly turned to player sales to offset swingeing operating deficits. Rogers was bought for an initial £7m from Middlesbrough and, even as there were a further £8m in potential add-ons, and his former club is due a sizeable sell-on, that record £117m fee confers significant profit at Villa Park.

Yet UEFA’s rules look unkindly on players passing between two clubs in a short space of time and, if they deem them ‘player exchange transactions’, require clubs to reduce the profits they show in their calculations. In essence, if UEFA deemed the Rogers deal to be in conjunction with a Chelsea player coming the other way, Villa would be required to reduce their Rogers profit to the difference between the net cash received for him and the amount paid to Chelsea for Garnacho, or, for that matter, anyone else.

Whether Villa only wanted to loan Garnacho anyway is unclear, but there’s an obvious motive for not signing him permanently. Or at least not right now. UEFA’s player exchange rules cover a period of 45 days. After that, a permanent deal could be triggered and Villa could sign Garnacho outright and see no negative impact on the Rogers profit.

Yet they also have to be careful around any obligations included in the deal.

Per UEFA, if a condition is considered to be “virtually certain”, clubs must record loan deals as permanent ones at the point the loan takes place. In that sense, the conditions included in the Garnacho deal must have a realistic possibility of not occurring in order for the deal to be recorded, at least initially, as a loan.

It is unclear currently what form any such conditions might take, with club sources advising The Athletic nothing can be confirmed until a deal is done. UEFA will look closely at any transfer, loan or otherwise, that does take place, though Villa’s cause for arguing the obligation is conditional might be bolstered, inadvertently, by a previous incident.

Last season, they signed Harvey Elliott on loan from Liverpool, with a conditional obligation that appeared, at the time, fairly easy to meet: Elliott just had to play 10 Premier League games in an Aston Villa shirt. He didn’t, and has since returned to Liverpool.

Each of Garnacho, Villa and Chelsea will hope the same doesn’t transpire again. But there is a balance to be found in whatever deal is eventually signed.

Villa want to ensure they don’t kneecap themselves with respect to the Rogers profit, and Chelsea will benefit from saved wages even if the deal doesn’t go beyond a loan, but the latter will also be keen to obtain as much certainty as possible over the departure of a player now deemed surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.