Alejandro Garnacho Has Played Just 31 Minutes for Aston Villa This Season

• Alejandro Garnacho has played just 31 minutes across three substitute appearances for Aston Villa this season after joining on loan from Chelsea in the summer, with his longest outing a 15-minute cameo against Hull City.
• He has been an unused substitute for Villa’s past four matches, including Saturday’s 3-2 win at Tottenham, with academy product George Hemmings and £47m signing Ibrahim Mbaye both preferred by manager Unai Emery.
• Emery said Garnacho is “a little bit behind” after a facial injury disrupted his pre-season, but insisted he remains a long-term admirer of the 22-year-old and is asking for patience.

The Winger Who Won Goal of the Season Is Now Fighting for Fifteen Minutes

Alejandro Garnacho won the Premier League’s goal of the season award two years ago for an overhead kick that lit up Old Trafford. Two months into his loan at Aston Villa, he cannot get off the bench.

The 22-year-old winger has played just 31 minutes in a Villa shirt after arriving from Chelsea in the summer, spread across three substitute appearances. His longest outing, 15 minutes against Hull City, remains the most game time manager Unai Emery has given him. He was an unused substitute again as Villa won 3-2 at Tottenham on Saturday, watching from the bench for a fourth consecutive match.

It is a familiar position for a player who arrived at Chelsea from Manchester United last year with a considerable reputation and left it a year later having managed one goal and four assists in 24 Premier League appearances. Now, on loan at a fourth club in three years, the Argentina international finds himself behind a teenage academy graduate in Emery’s pecking order.

‘He Is Progressing, but We Have Players in Front of Him Now’

Emery has explained his approach to introducing signings gradually, and pointed to his own record of patience with previous arrivals at Villa Park.

Youri Tielemans did not start a Premier League match until November 2023, months after signing, before becoming a fixture in Emery’s side. Of Villa’s ten summer signings this year, only Joao Gomes started the opening Premier League match, with Zion Suzuki and Nicolas Jackson added for the next.

Garnacho’s situation looks more pronounced. He was left out entirely for the Carabao Cup win at Coventry, when Emery made seven changes, and has been overtaken by two players with far less first-team history: academy product George Hemmings, who joined Villa from Nottingham Forest as a teenager, and Ibrahim Mbaye, a £47m signing from Paris Saint-Germain who made his first Villa start in that Coventry win.

A facial injury in early August disrupted Garnacho’s pre-season and forced him to miss the Super Cup defeat by Paris Saint-Germain, adding to the list of setbacks.

“Continue working. Work, work, train, work,” Emery said when asked about Garnacho’s absence from the pitch. “When he can have minutes to play, try to play well. He is progressing, but we have players in front of him now.

“George is playing fantastic. Alysson is also understanding things well and is giving us things I want. Mbaye also responded well. We want a competitive team and players to compete in the style we have. Garnacho is a little bit behind because of some circumstances we had in pre-season. It is time to be patient for the time he needs.”

Those close to the coaching staff describe Emery as a long-term admirer of Garnacho, though what he has produced in training this pre-season has not yet convinced the Villa boss to trust him with regular minutes. Garnacho first made his name as a livewire teenager who could torment Premier League defences in one-on-one situations, the trait that earned him regular Champions League football at United before he had turned 20 and the reason Chelsea moved for him two summers later.

A Reputation Built as a Teenager, Now Tested at a Second Club

Garnacho made his Manchester United debut at 17 and was part of Argentina’s Copa America-winning squad in 2024, though his eight senior caps have not grown beyond that November. His overhead kick against Everton in 2023-24 won the Premier League’s goal of the season award while he was still a regular starter under Erik ten Hag.

His output fell away at Old Trafford before Chelsea paid £40m to sign him last year. He managed one goal and four assists in 24 Premier League games for the Blues, below what the club had expected, and said he needed time to adapt to what he called a “different club and a different place.” He did not train with Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea squad before his move to Villa Park in July, once his role in Alonso’s plans had narrowed.

Roma had been interested in taking Garnacho on loan, but their proposal did not suit Chelsea, who sent him to Villa instead in a deal that includes an obligation to buy tied to appearances, believed to be considered achievable. Villa wanted more pace in their side this summer and had also considered Crysencio Summerville before he moved to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal. A positive relationship between the two clubs, built over eight deals in four years, including striker Nicolas Jackson’s club-record £65m move to Villa and Chelsea’s £117m signing of Morgan Rogers from Villa, allowed for easy discussions once Summerville’s move fell away.

The Ghost of Harvey Elliott’s Loan

Garnacho’s situation has revived comparisons with Harvey Elliott’s spell at Villa Park last season. Elliott’s loan from Liverpool carried an obligation to buy worth £35m if he reached 10 Premier League appearances, but Emery judged that the midfielder was not good enough and made up his mind within a couple of months not to pursue a permanent deal.

Elliott was used just four times in the league before the move was quietly shelved; he is now at Valencia, having found his options this summer narrower than they would otherwise have been after a season on the periphery at Villa.

It raised questions across the game about whether a loan at Villa should be approached with caution, and whether a young player’s development could be slowed by a spell on the fringes of Emery’s squad. Time will tell whether Garnacho faces the same outcome, but the early signs, three substitute appearances and 31 minutes in two months, are not encouraging.

Garnacho’s career has cooled over the past two seasons, a sharp change for a player who broke into Manchester United’s team as a teenager and looked, for a period, like one of the most exciting young wingers in England. Time will tell whether a second loan move revives that form, or whether it becomes one more stop in a career that has cooled considerably from its early promise.

The three-week international break that follows this weekend’s fixtures offers a rare stretch of uninterrupted training for players outside their national squads. It is the kind of period Emery has previously used to work individually with fringe players before easing them into his matchday squads, the pathway Tielemans followed on his way to becoming a regular starter at Villa Park after a slow start of his own at the club.

Waiting for an Opening

Emery insists he remains an admirer of Garnacho and is waiting for him to show in training what he produced on his best days at Old Trafford. For now, the winger who once celebrated an overhead kick in front of the Stretford End is measuring his season in substitute cameos, waiting for an opening that has, so far, gone to a teenage academy product and a £47m summer signing instead.