Week after week, they would take their seats in the stands at Premier League stadiums. Scouts from Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool, not to mention the elite of European football, all keeping a close eye on Leicester City’s No 8.
One by one they filed their reports and one by one their clubs decided to pass. Not even when Youri Tielemans had run down his contract at the King Power Stadium and was available on a free transfer in the summer of 2023.
Instead of focusing on his strengths, they worried about his weaknesses — the classic recruitment mistake. Tielemans’ relative lack of pace and mobility concerned them, and they feared he did not score enough goals.
Yet Unai Emery saw past these details and persuaded Aston Villa to give Tielemans a four-year contract worth about £200,000 a week — which instantly made him one of the club’s top earners. After meeting Tielemans at his home in rural Leicestershire, Emery asked a series of questions designed to understand the player but also the person. He left certain that Tielemans’ ambition matched his own.
When Emery speaks to potential targets, he will fire up his laptop and show them various clips of their games. He will say ‘I need you to do this’ when showing some and ‘Don’t do this’ when showing others. Tielemans liked the idea of playing closer to the attackers and operating at different points of Villa’s midfield ‘box’.
On the face of it, it was a big salary for a player whose goal and assist numbers were modest. Don’t forget, though, that Villa did not pay a fee for Tielemans, so it was normal that his representatives would demand high wages. Moreover, Emery was willing to look beyond those superficial statistics.
The performances of Youri Tielemans have been key to Aston Villa’s success in recent years
The 27-year-old midfielder is meticulous about his diet, eating regular portions of oily fish
After a steady first season, Tielemans has, along with Morgan Rogers, been Villa’s outstanding player this term. Though the team’s form has fluctuated, his certainly has not.
Tielemans keeps Villa’s engine ticking. He scores highly across the board in Opta’s Premier League passing charts — second for passes into the final third, fourth for progressive passes and through-balls and ninth for key passes.
Beyond the statistics, though, he provides the sort of understated leadership this team needs. Tielemans may not be as vocal as Emiliano Martinez or Tyrone Mings, but he leads by example on and off the pitch.
He has the top-level experience Villa need, too. He made his Champions League debut for Anderlecht aged 16 and has now made 29 appearances in Europe’s premier club competition. He has 74 caps for Belgium and his winning goal for Leicester against Chelsea in the 2021 FA Cup final was one of the most memorable at Wembley of recent times.
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The 27-year-old is meticulous about his diet and preparation, eating regular portions of oily fish to ease the strain on his joints.
Emery demands his players spend at least 70 per cent of their waking lives focused on football. Besides his young family, Tielemans devotes his time to little else. No wonder he has yet to miss a Premier League, Champions League or FA Cup fixture for Villa this season — and he has started every game, too.
Tielemans turns 28 in May and though he has plenty of miles on the clock, he has proved a fine investment.
Talks over a new contract should follow before the end of the year and, as Villa contemplate a thrilling end to the season with a Champions League advantage over Club Bruges to defend next week in the second leg, a race for the top five in the league and an FA Cup quarter-final in store, some of those scouts must be kicking themselves.
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