‘Don’t lose those stupid points’: Youri Tielemans on Aston Villa lessons, Emery and aiming high

Team’s outstanding player last season is determined to help break the club’s near 30-year trophy droughtThe smile on Youri Tielemans’ face widens as he discusses the summer Unai Emery visited him in Quorn, the Leicestershire village he has called home since arriving in England six years ago. “The initial conversation was about my ideas as a player, where I wanted to play and how I saw myself and I think he quite liked me because he came back a second time,” Tielemans says, laughing. “It was really about understanding each other. And I think we clicked the first time we met.”Fast-forward two years and Tielemans, who joined Aston Villa as a free agent after leaving Leicester, has established himself as an indispensable cog in Emery’s machine. Tielemans has been considered a classy midfielder since making his Champions League debut for Anderlecht aged 16 and has proved a dependable force for Villa, an intelligent operator whether sniffing danger or shifting possession. The 28-year-old thinks carefully on and off the pitch, valuing sleep and nutrition; he is teetotal and those close to him highlight the only fizzy drink he may consume is sparkling water. In January, before Tielemans returned to his former club Monaco with Villa in the Champions League, Emery said Tielemans’s “best quality is in his mind, his mentality”. Continue reading...

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