Unai Emery makes Newcastle United admission after his Aston Villa side secured their FA Cup quarter final place

The one that got away, Unai Emery rejected the chance to join Newcastle United shortly after the PIF-backed takeover in 2021, making way for Eddie Howe to take over from Steve Bruce.

It would only be a couple of months later that the Spaniard would return to Premier League management, taking over Aston Villa, completely turning the Midlands side around.

Thankfully, by that point, fans were pleased with the appointment of Eddie Howe, but when Villa were flying, there were certainly a few fans wondering "what if?".

Overall, I think most fans would say we got the better deal ultimately and things worked out the right way.

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Unai Emery believes Newcastle have a better shot of lifting the FA Cup than Aston Villa

Whatever Emery's real reasons for turning down Newcastle were, it seems like he has plenty of respect for the Magpies after admitting that Eddie Howe's side have more of a chance of winning the FA Cup than his side (h/t The Chronicle), despite Villa already being in the draw for the quarter finals.

"We are now in the quarter-final and it is one step forward in the competition, we didn’t do that in the last two years. There are some teams who are more favourite than us, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle.

"We know this competition is a way for a trophy, a way for Wembley, a way for Europa League and prestige for the club and the supporters are excited and motivated to try and share this opportunity with us."

Newcastle have to navigate their way past Brighton tomorrow

We will know this time tomorrow just how accurate a statement that was after Newcastle's game with Brighton has wrapped up.

Newcastle are the only side who can currently bring home the domestic cup double, but Brighton aren't going to roll over and let that happen on Sunday.

At the time of writing, Man City are still at 0-0 with Plymouth, while Crystal Palace, Preston North End and Bournemouth will all join Aston Villa in the pot for the quarter final draw.