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New York Times
14 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
What young Villa centre-backs Sil Swinkels and Josh Feeney learned in League One's school of hard knocks
Hard knocks are part of a young footballer's education. Stepping into a first team asks questions. It can be abrasive, unforgiving and, depending on circumstances, a culture shock. This may be even truer for a central defender, a position that requires consistency and minimal errors. Lessons can be harsh. Advertisement For a defender's first forays outside the Premier League academy bubble and into a senior side elsewhere, the stakes are raised immeasurably; results dictate a league position and there are financial repercussions, be it a loss of funding, employment for club workers or bonuses, which some players heavily rely on. 'When I first came in, we won a couple and (were) above the relegation places,' Sil Swinkels, Aston Villa's central defender who spent the second half of last season at Bristol Rovers in League One, tells The Athletic. 'You start to think, 'Oh, we're doing well here'. I scored on my debut, which was amazing and a blur. 'Then you lose one and you feel it in the changing room. The mood changes because careers are on the line. That's very different from the under-21s. Games are about development and if you lose but you play well, that's almost more important. After the first loss, I was in a proper survival fight.' It is little wonder that the 21-year-old centre-back found solace in trading experiences with another young Villa centre-back, Josh Feeney, 20, who spent last season on loan at Shrewsbury Town, also in English football's third tier. Both players experienced the sharp pain of relegation. 'Josh and I spoke before and after every game,' says Swinkels. 'It was just, 'Are you starting? Who have you got on the weekend?'. If I were playing a team he had faced, he would give me advice about their striker and vice versa.' At the start of May, both returned to Bodymoor Heath, Villa's training ground, for post-season reviews with emerging talent development manager Tony Carss. 'The reviews were about sharing our own experiences which were very similar,' says Swinkels. 'We both came from Villa into teams that didn't really play football themselves anymore and were struggling. It was nice to talk over because it was so recognisable.' While Dutchman Swinkels was leaving Villa's orbit for the first time since arriving from Vitesse Arnhem in 2020 in a deal worth £180,000 ($244,000 in today's exchange), Shrewsbury was Englishman Feeney's second loan, having been the first of five graduates to move to Unai Emery-owned Basque club, Real Union, in January 2024. Villa took a calculated risk when they signed Feeney from Fleetwood Town for a substantial fee in June 2021. It was the era of Covid and behind-closed-doors matches, when opportunities to watch players in the flesh were limited. Scouting took place on the usual platforms — Wyscout and other data software — and Villa's youth recruitment decided to pursue Feeney without so much as a distant in-person view of the defender. When negotiations took place over Zoom, Feeney was 14 and playing for Fleetwood's under-18s, before he featured on their senior bench as a 15-year-old. Advertisement Feeney, who rejected interest from other top-flight sides, entered Villa's scholarship programme. He became the youngest player to feature in Villa's matchday squad in the 2021-22 season and combined captaining England's under-17s with training in then-manager Steven Gerrard's first team. Since then, he has played in Villa's three pre-season trips abroad and has benefited from greater tactical understanding through Emery's coaching. Shrewsbury, meanwhile, offered a hardship that, as the theory goes, is often required in pursuit of progress. While on their loans last season, the pair regularly checked in with Carss, who would ring or message after most games. Sometimes they would chat naturally, perhaps a way of showing they were still in the club's thoughts and, at others, be sent clips of previous games with comments from Carss. 'It would be, 'Have a look at this, what could you have done better here?',' says Swinkels. 'Or, 'Here you do this, which is not bad, but this maybe would be better'. So he was working with me closely, which gave me the feeling I was representing Villa.' Swinkels had signed a new long-term contract at Villa earlier in the season, with first-team minutes the next stage of his development. He could have gone on loan last summer after Peterborough United and Wycombe Wanderers expressed interest, but Villa decided they were light in central defence with Tyrone Mings recovering from an ACL injury, so they kept the Netherlands youth international to provide cover for the first half of the season. Rovers entered the equation over the winter. They share a productive relationship with Villa, and Swinkles joined Lino Sousa, a 20-year-old left-back already there on loan. A year earlier, Lamare Bogarde benefited from successive spells at Rovers and later provided essential depth to Emery's side. Advertisement Bogarde and Swinkels had been scouted by Villa's recruitment staff on the same day of a trip to the Netherlands. The latter played 14 games for Rovers and believes his time in the south west stands him in excellent stead heading into the summer. 'I spoke to Lino, who was enjoying it, and then Lamare said he learned a lot,' says Swinkels. 'Having players that have been there and done what you want gives familiarity. 'When I spoke to them, Rovers did a presentation and showed the examples of Elliot Anderson (now at Nottingham Forest) and Jarell Quansah (Liverpool), who played on loan. There were four or five cases in the last three years of players going there and then kicking on their careers.' At Rovers, Swinkels played in his most familiar position in a back four, before moonlighting at full-back and in a back three whenever manager Inigo Calderon wanted further defensive cover. It tested how Swinkels defended; a centre-back in youth football would be accustomed to play being in front of him. Here, though, opposing strikers were more willing to nudge, poke and turn. 'When I came, we wanted to play football and I was thinking, 'This will be nice, I can still play',' Swinkels laughs. 'But quickly we changed to very direct football. You get used to it because if you know you're going to play long, you stop looking for shorter passes. 'Off the ball was a big change, especially playing in a back five where there are a lot of situations defending wide areas. When teams go long in academy football, they will play off the forward, getting knockdowns. In League One, they wouldn't look to knock the ball down — strikers would just knock the ball on further. 'The way strikers use their body… they see me jumping and while in mid air, they give a nudge. After a couple of games, I started knowing when to jump and when it's better to let them jump and nudging them.' Rovers finished 22nd in League One, with only Cambridge United and Feeney's Shrewsbury below. If Swinkels' loan was immediately being thrown in at the deep end, Feeney's experience was longer, more gradual. A previously stable League One side who had been in the division for 10 successive seasons, Shrewsbury were treading water before sinking. Advertisement This had little to do with Feeney, whose performances got better as the team got worse. Barring injuries, Feeney was largely ever-present, making 39 appearances in all competitions. Realistically, Swinkels and Feeney are expected to go on loan again and step up levels once more in 2025-26. It seems that adversity and being battle-hardened early in a career, despite the particular pitfalls for centre-backs, is no great issue for two Villa players who aspire to compete at the highest possible level.
New York Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Pako Ayestaran: Unai Emery's Aston Villa No 2 who loves pressing – and protecting the planet
Unai Emery did not want to repeat the mistakes of his first crack at managing in England. For his second shot in October 2022, nearly three years on from being fired by Arsenal after just 16 months, he wanted an experienced coach alongside him who knew the Premier League well. A call was made to Pako Ayestaran, a fellow Spaniard who had worked under Emery as La Liga side Valencia's fitness coach in the 2009-10 season, having previously been on Rafa Benitez's staff at Liverpool for three years, including for their Champions League triumph of 2005. Advertisement Ayestaran, now 62, came in as a fresh voice alongside Emery's tried and trusted aides. 'I've seen Villa close up,' former England international Stephen Warnock, who worked with Ayestaran at Liverpool, tells The Athletic. 'Their ideas are very similar. The coaching is very technical; the body movements and the defensive positions are very specific.' 'Every player will have something to improve on,' young Villa defender Sil Swinkels says. 'I did a lot with Pako after training, focusing on recognising where the pressure comes from in possession before passing into mini goals, positioned where the No 10, the left-back or the No 6 would be. Pako would press me from one angle and I would get the ball, take it into the space and find the spare mini-goal and pass through. 'Suddenly, I'd have two coaches pressing me. I then played a couple of games and realised I was just doing a simulation of Pako's drill on the pitch.' Even though they had not worked with each other for more than a decade before reuniting at Villa Park, Emery and Ayestaran share the same overarching principles about the game, centred on control and an emphasis on playing between the lines by overloading central areas. 'It is vital he has the ear of Unai,' says Warnock. 'I spoke to Austin MacPhee (Villa's set-pieces coach) and he was telling me how the coaching staff constantly challenge and push each other. 'Pako told me one of Emery's biggest strengths is that he doesn't dwell on things. They'll make mistakes, but they'll move on and work through it.' Ayestaran was born in the Basque region of Gipuzkoa, the same province in northern Spain Emery hails from. They both came through the ranks locally at Real Sociedad, although Ayestaran is nearly a decade older and had a shorter playing stint there than his future boss, as a central defender, before transitioning into the fitness and conditioning field at age 21. Advertisement A nomadic career ensued, precipitated by Benitez's influence. In 1996, Ayestaran was promoted from fitness coach to be an assistant under Benitez at fellow Spanish sides Osasuna, Extremadura and Tenerife, before joining him at Valencia and then Liverpool. Now close to entering his fourth decade in various coaching positions, the 62-year-old has held 14 different roles at 11 clubs and in six countries. 'There was an element of good cop, bad cop with (him and) Rafa,' Warnock says. 'But Pako had a steely side, too. If he wasn't happy, he'd tell you. But he would try to keep you upbeat. If you weren't in the squad, he'd chat to you to make things easier. Those players would train early on Saturday (before the weekend's first-team game) and he would join in the session. 'I once had issues with cramp and he organised a programme to get rid of it by working on strength exercises.' Ayestaran had a transformative effect on squad availability at Anfield. He implemented modern sports science, creating data that showed the precise number of minutes an individual had played. This helped design a rotation policy to ensure Liverpool peaked during a season's defining period. He also had three man-made 'Pako hills' constructed along the perimeter of Melwood, Liverpool's training complex at the time, in 2006 for running exercises. They were of different gradients, sculpted to improve players' endurance. 'When Rafa would be coaching the technical elements, Pako would stand on a different side of the pitch saying, 'Do you understand what he's after?',' Warnock says. ''This is what we're trying to achieve'. He wouldn't put on many sessions (himself) as Rafa was very hands-on, but colder in his manner.' Ayestaran and Benitez fitted one another nicely for more than a decade. In that time, they won promotion to La Liga with Tenerife, two Spanish league titles and a UEFA Cup (today's Europa League) at Valencia, then an FA Cup and that Champions League (while also getting to another final of the latter competition) on Merseyside. Advertisement An 11-year partnership spanning five clubs collapsed at the start of the 2007-08 season, with Benitez failing to hide his disappointment. He accused Ayestaran of 'betrayal', asserting he had discreetly contacted other clubs about jobs. His long-time lieutenant was placed on gardening leave. 'I worked with him for 11 years,' Benitez later told UK newspaper The Times. 'It's a wound that still hurts. Liverpool gave him autonomy and power, and that changed him a lot — he wanted more and more. One day, I found out he had serious contacts with other teams, and that seemed to me a betrayal towards me and the club that I couldn't accept.' 'That's not true. I never looked at any jobs behind his back,' Ayestaran responded in an interview with the Liverpool Echo newspaper in 2015. 'It's true I had offers from Spain, but Rafa knew about them.' In his autobiography published in that same year, Liverpool's captain of that era, Steven Gerrard, acknowledged the team missed Ayestaran's 'stabilising presence' after his exit. 'We lost a lot when Rafa fell out with Pako,' he wrote. 'We all loved his training and his methods. I always felt so fresh and fired up when going out to play a match under Pako. The communication had been perfect under Ayestaran, and when he left, it declined. I felt Rafa had changed and had no confidence in his new staff. For me, he's the perfect No 2.' 'Pako's English is great,' Warnock says. 'Rafa's wasn't very good at the beginning, so Pako would do a lot of the explaining.' Ayestaran headed home for Real Sociedad to become sporting director, albeit that only lasted for a matter of weeks due to a hierarchical conflict. Having reverted to being a fitness coach at Benfica in Portugal and then back with Valencia, he returned as a No 2 at Al Ahli in Dubai. However, it felt a natural step for Ayestaran, by now in his fifties and with ample experience, to make a go of it in the most senior role. He was appointed manager of a second-tier Mexican side, Estudiantes Tecos, in 2013, but left at the end of that season after failing to win promotion. This was the first of his three coaching roles in Mexico. After resigning at Maccabi Tel Aviv — despite winning the Israeli club's first-ever treble in 2015 — he returned that same year with Santos Laguna. A pattern emerged of Ayestaran returning to clubs back home he'd worked for previously after more far-flung jobs and, in most cases, challenging environments with unstable boards. But in his third spell with Valencia, after lasting only three months at Santos Laguna, he had both. In February 2016, a then clubless Ayestaran received a call from their new manager, Gary Neville — on the advice of his Sky Sports punditry colleague Jamie Carragher, who was coached by the Spaniard at Liverpool — asking him to return to the Mestalla stadium once more. Neville felt he needed more Spanish-speaking staff to get through to the players and Ayestaran was parachuted in, serving as a final attempt to arrest the team's decline. Ayestaran took over when Neville was fired the following month, though he had been in two minds about accepting the job. He felt a sense of loyalty, later admitting he put a clause in his initial contract that stated 'if Gary went, I would go, too', yet it was Neville who convinced him to take the role. Ayestaran was appointed on an interim basis at first, before signing a two-year deal that summer. Advertisement He lasted only another couple of months — not helped by fan protests towards Peter Lim's unpopular ownership, Valencia lost their first four matches of the 2016-17 season and he too was sacked. His reputation further diminished in Spain as he left Las Palmas early the following season, having survived just seven league matches after his September appointment — without winning any of them. So Ayestaran went to manage in Mexico again, at top-tier team Pachuca, in May 2018. 'He was very methodical,' says Pachuca's head physiotherapist, Pedro Joel Robelo. 'He was charismatic and observant. His fitness background meant he paid close attention to preventive work against injuries.' He and Pachuca parted ways the following January. In August 2020, Ayesteran was appointed manager at Tondela of the Portuguese Primeira Liga. 'Pako cycled to the stadium every day,' says Francisco Favinha, the club's director of communications. 'He was mid-fifties but ran on the stadium's pitch and swam. He was very concerned about the environment, like recycling, reducing waste and saving water. He was a man of principle and very affable.' Ayestaran had a keen eye for internal processes and, upon joining Tondela, became fixated on the club's structure from top to bottom, intending to further professionalise operations. On his first day, he met Tondela's academy staff to make his youth policy known. Monchi, Damian Vidagany, Unai Emery and his backroom team have worked tirelessly to deliver history in their first full season at Villa Park. 🤝 🇪🇸 Pako Ayestarán 🇪🇸 Pablo Villanueva 🇪🇸 Javi García 🇪🇸 Rodri 🏴 Austin MacPhee 🇪🇸 Moisés De Hoyo 🇪🇸 Víctor Mañas — Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) May 15, 2024 'Pako had a good first season, but the second didn't go well,' Favinha says. 'He was fired in the final stretch and Tondela were relegated. At the same time, he was responsible for Tondela reaching the (2021-22) Portuguese Cup final.' 'He had his own style and was very professional,' says Jose Alves, Tondela's sports therapist. 'The most negative aspect was his very long training sessions. But he was accessible and focused on social causes, such as recycling and waste.' Advertisement Once Ayestaran received the call to reunite with Emery at Villa in late 2022, there was little hesitation. His career had come full circle and having managed, directed and assisted at unstable clubs — to varying degrees of success — the experience he could impart on the Birmingham-based side's coaching team felt integral. Ayestaran may be an overlooked cog in Villa's broader functions, but his importance cannot be understated. The knowledge from a unique career in football has contributed to him becoming the perfect foil to Emery.
