https://www.theplayerstribune.com/ezri-konsa-premier-league-epl-aston-villa-soccer-europa-league
This has fired me up. What a fucking guy. This team are amazing.
"Nothing would mean more to me than to win this trophy. This club means everything to me. After 300 games here, it feels like a family. I came here as a kid. I’m still here as a man, and a proud father. The love the fans have for this club, it has to be seen to be believed."
WIN IT VILLA!!!!
Ezri KonsaTo my fellow Villans,
If you had told me in September that we’d get back into the Champions League and play the Europa League final, I would have laughed at you. First five league games, we scored one goal. We didn’t win. Everyone was writing us off.
To be honest, I only realised how bad it was when Unai Emery called us in for a meeting.
The boss loves meetings, long, long meetings. But this one was different. Nobody was talking. Our heads were down. I was hoping that he’d come up with a way to fix the team, but he sat down and looked at us.
He said, “Guys ……… I’m really worried.”
And I just remember thinking, F****** hell.
This is bad. Really bad.
The boss has never, ever used that word. Not a single time three years. No matter how badly we’ve done, he’s always backed us to come out stronger on the other side. But in that meeting, you could tell that something was wrong just by the way he spoke. He was very concerned. We all were. I remember looking at the boys, seeing them glance over at one another, saying nothing. Nobody seemed to have any solutions. All I could think was, I’m not sure we’re gonna get out of this rut.
When we lost out on the Champions League on the final day of last season, and Morgan had that goal disallowed at Old Trafford, that was a big kick in the teeth for us. Come summer, we couldn’t strengthen up like the boss wanted. First game at Villa Park, I get sent off and we draw.
We lose to Brentford. We lose to Palace. We take two points off Everton and Sunderland. Our goal is to get back into the Champions League.
Five games in, we’re in the relegation zone.
The lowest point was Sunderland. One man up at 1–0, we still couldn’t win. Even before they scored that late equaliser, I knew we were gonna concede. As a centre half, you get a sixth sense for it. Going back in on Monday, the mood was bad. Training was bad. I’m sure if I was the manager, I would have asked myself how much we really wanted it. As one of the senior pros, it was tough to see.
Dear Villa
Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
When I did the press conference before the Bologna game, I got asked all the usual stuff. “Do you think you can turn it around?” We all know how the media works, right? I had to say what they expected to hear.
“I fully believe in this squad. Once it clicks, we’re gonna fly.”
But I can’t say that I 100% believed it. And that hurt, because I always want to be straight up with everybody.
Then we beat Bologna, and everything I had said actually happened.
You know the funny thing? There was nothing special going down. No massive team meeting or pep talk, nothing like that. I think it was just a fresh start for us. A different competition. No English teams. A clean slate. And once we won, a lot of relief.
A few months later, we had 11 wins on the bounce. We just had this crazy confidence. We lined up for games knowing we were going to win, and that feeling is very rare in football. Even when we went a goal down, we knew we could turn it around in a couple of minutes. Nobody boasted, we just took it game by game. I don’t even like looking at the table, especially early in the season, but I thought that we at least had to be close to the Champions League spots. Near the end of December, I had a quick look on my phone.
Arsenal — 42 pts
Man City — 40 pts
Aston Villa — 39 pts
WTF.
I’m not gonna lie. I did think it.
Could we do what Leicester did?
We talked about it in the dressing room. Not as a team, because the boss only looks at the table near the end of the season. It was mostly whispered in small groups. Boys, we got a chance here. It was just really fun. But I always had the feeling that if one of our main players got injured, it was going to be tough for us, because we don’t have that deep a squad. We’re not spending a billion pounds on players every summer.
Dear Villa
Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images
One month later, we had lost Onana, Kamara, Tielemans and McGinn. A team like us, we need everything to go our way to have a shot at the title, and it didn’t.
Let’s be honest, 2026 hasn’t been great for us. When you play in Europe for three years and you’re chasing the Champions League spots, it takes a toll. I was nervous when we played Forest in the first semifinal, because I knew we hadn’t beaten an English team away since January. But to be fair, losing 1–0 wasn’t the end of the world. We knew how good we are at Villa Park, when the floodlights are on and the fans are behind us.
That Spurs game? We deserved to be booed. You pay good money to see us put our hearts on our sleeves, and that day we didn’t do much at all. But I think we were just so focused on the second leg. All I would talk about that week was Forest Forest Forest. Just ask my missus.
She’d say, “What do you want for dinner?”
“Forest.”
From the way the boys were talking, I knew we were gonna win.
Two days before the game, I saw Ollie Watkins making coffee. I walked over, put my arm around him and said, “Ollie, we need you on Thursday, please.”
He looked me in the eye and said, “Don’t worry. I’m gonna score. I’m gonna fight. I’m gonna give ’em absolute hell.”
I had never heard Ollie talk like that.
There was something special in the air that week. In the dressing room before kickoff, Ginny spoke as the captain, and then I also had a few words. I told the boys to lock in and enjoy it. I said that I had never won a trophy here, and that now that we’re this close, there’s no way in hell we’re losing this game.
When Ollie cut his eye open in the first half, and they put that bandage around his head, I looked at him and thought, Yeah, these Forest defenders are in for a treat. He was a man on fire, causing havoc, non-stop running. About 10 minutes later, Ollie scored. And then Emi, John, John.
4–0.
Dear Villa
Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images
I still haven’t fully taken in how special a night that was. To reach a first major European final in 44 years, to write history for such amazing fans, it’s hard to put into words. A lot of the fans at that stadium weren’t born the last time Villa made a European final. The noise that night, I’ve never heard Villa Park like that. If you watched me at the final whistle, I didn’t really show the emotions that I maybe should have shown, but it was one of the biggest highs I have experienced. As I was celebrating with the fans, my mind went back across my seven years here, and how far we have come together.
It’s crazy……….. Had we not stayed up on the last day in 2020, none of this would have happened.
Going into that West Ham game six years ago, I had a lot of stuff going through my head. I was 22, just signed from Brentford, and I had finally gotten into the team. I felt like I was about to make a name for myself, and now I could go straight back down to the Championship. I didn’t want to let down the people who had helped me get there. The night before, I was lying in my hotel bed for hours, just thinking.
I was thinking about moving from house to house in Newham, and sharing a bunk bed with my brother and my uncle. Playing football with the boys in the car park with the big sign that said NO BALL GAMES. Scoring a hat trick in Sunday League just when Charlton had a scout lurking around. Dad driving me to training through the Blackwall Tunnel, talking about how difficult it was to grow up in the Congo. Our car breaking down on the motorway for the third time that month. Him opening the hood, and me sliding down in the passenger seat out of sheer embarrassment. My brother giving me the raw truth after every game.
In the middle of all these memories, it hit me. Man, my family really has done a lot for me.
We’d come too far to go right back down to the Champ.
In the dressing room before the game, I looked at Jack Grealish thinking, Please, Jack. Just save us today. Straight away, they played a long ball towards Antonio, and I slid forward to intercept it……. I missed it and he put it just wide. I nearly had a heart attack. At 0–0 going into the last few minutes, you wonder where the goal is gonna come from, and then ... a moment of magic from Jack. A minute later, they scored.
We knew Watford were losing to Arsenal, and that we just needed a point, so I was telling the West Ham players, “Please, let us draw.”
Literally begging them. They were safe, but they just looked at me and laughed. Actually laughing out loud. Give up a draw? No chance.
The final minutes are a blur to me. I just remember waiting on the final scores with the boys, and then celebrating like I never had before. I was hugging Dean Smith. I was hugging my family. I hadn’t let them down. We were still Premier League.
Dear Villa
Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United FC via Getty Images
And then a few years later, Unai Emery came and took it to another level.
The first thing he told us when he arrived was, “I’m not here to waste time.” Right away, he changed our mentality. No more being mid-table.
He wanted titles.
He wanted to get into Europe.
It’s funny because after the first few months, he sat me down and said, “Look, I really wasn’t sure about you.” He told me that I could play for England one day, but only if I was willing to put in the work and really believe in myself. He actually told a reporter once that he believes more in me than I believe in myself. That kind of hit home. From that point on, I wanted to work 10 times as hard. He can tell if I’m not 100%. When we were about to play City away last season, he asked me how I was feeling. I said, “I feel alright, boss.”
He looked me in the eyes.
“Honestly, I’m good.”
But I was really tired. We lost and I was poor. The boss never brought it up ............... until this season.
Forest away in the league, he put me on the bench, and I was fuming. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I'd actually scored the game before. I went upstairs and walked into his office, and once he saw me he started laughing.
He said, “If you’re here to ask me about the lineup, you can leave my office right now.”
I was like, “Boss, what’s this about?”
He said, “You remember City away last year? This time I’m not gonna ask if you feel fine to play. I’m just not gonna play you.”
Obviously I want to play every game, but a day or two later, I realised, You know what, he might be right. The boss has won the Europa League four times. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Dear Villa
Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
He works so hard, I’m not sure how he manages to have a life outside football. You can see how much he cares for us. Robin Olsen wasn’t playing much for us last season, but when he got a chance at Brentford, and he got a clean sheet, the boss got really emotional. He knew Robin works so hard and never complains and shows everyone so much respect, and he told us that he had been wishing and praying for Robin to get that clean sheet. For me, that’s the sign of a great manager, and a great man.
There was another moment when we lost out on the Champions League last year, and we got back into the dressing room, and it was like a funeral. Guys on the bench, staring into the air. I’m sitting there with my shirt pulled over my head, wanting to disappear into the ground. The boss began to speak, and then he started to tear up. He was telling us how proud he was of us, and how hard we’d worked, and how much commitment we’d shown. We had never seen him open up like that.
I had even more respect for him after that. He just loves what he’s doing, and he cares so deeply for his players.
We’re lucky to have Unai Emery as our boss.
Playing for him, you can see why he has won so much. When we conceded that late goal in Paris last season, he was kicking stuff in the dressing room. But then he told us how much he believed in us, and when you look at him, and you feel his energy, all you want to do is play the second leg. Even when we went 2–0 down at Villa Park, we didn’t lose faith. They were probably thinking, Who the f*** are Villa? But in that second half, I think they got scared of what we managed to do. When I scored, you could hear the noise 10 miles away from Villa Park.
We may have lost the tie, but we beat PSG that night. We showed what we can do when we stick together and believe in ourselves.
We need that energy again in Istanbul on Wednesday.
My mum, my sister, my brother, they will all be there. Even my dad. He has high blood pressure, and he usually gets too nervous to watch me play. Since I came to Villa he’s probably only seen me about five or six times. When I started out at Charlton, he’d nearly pass out just watching a long ball come towards me. Even following it on TV is hard for him. When we played Forest in the semifinal, he switched off at halftime.
“It’s too much for me, too much!!”
He went to read a newspaper or something, and then he checked the score at full time. But in Istanbul, he’ll be there. He might have to watch with his back turned, but he’ll be there. And for me, that makes this game extra special.
Nothing would mean more to me than to win this trophy. This club means everything to me. After 300 games here, it feels like a family. I came here as a kid. I’m still here as a man, and a proud father. The love the fans have for this club, it has to be seen to be believed.
And we can feel that love. Like the boss said after the Liverpool game on Friday, without your support it would be impossible for us to achieve all this.
So to all the fans out there, let me say one final thing. It’s simple.
Believe.
Believe in us, whether you are watching in the stadium, or at the pub, or in a living room on the other side of the world.
We are all Villans.
Let’s bring it home.
Yours sincerely,
Ezri Konsa
