The last time Villa lifted silverware, beating Leeds 3-0 in the League Cup, Prodigy’s Firestarter had knocked Take That’s version of How Deep Is Your Love from the number one spot in the charts and Wallace and Gromit’s A Close Shave had just won an Oscar.
David Beckham had not yet made his debut in England and Cash, Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara and Emi Buendia were not born.
It has been a long wait, and since then Villa have lost two FA Cup finals and one League Cup final.
Emery, a Europa League winner with Sevilla and Villarreal in previous roles, said on his first day in charge that the main objective was to win a trophy. Last season’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to eventual winners Crystal Palace still stings.
A Europa Conference League semi-final defeat to Olympiakos 18 months ago and a thrilling Champions League quarter-final exit to Paris St-Germain in April show they are getting closer.
“The Conference League semi-final and the Champions League quarter-final were big nights for us, big moments where we didn’t deliver,” captain John McGinn told reporters.
“Every time we go into a big game, we have a determination in the back of our heads to show that this team we’ve built over the last five or six years is worth more than a quarter-final, that it’s worth more than a semi-final.
“The determination, I can feel it this year. I can feel that we want to prove a point. I think until we do that, there will always be questions. As a captain, you feel that probably twice as much, but when that day finally comes, you will feel it positively, twice as much.”
