https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNRNvO4QTX8

Quick summary, last question about Palhinha was in Spanish.

Emery, McGinn & Lindelhoff ahead of the Super Cup final vs PSG - plus Emery quizzed on Palhinha links

Watched the full presser ahead of tomorrow's UEFA Super Cup final against PSG. Here's everything of note:

Emery's opening

• Says he's "comfortable, happy, very demanding - even more than the last years". Winning the Europa League is why we're here, and he credits the players for buying into the standards and mentality he's built.
• Cracked a joke that his English is "little by little getting better - this is the next target as well".

Team news (the big one)

• Konsa, Watkins and Emi Martínez are NOT available. Their season only finished on 19 July, so Emery gave them four weeks off and says the rest is "completely necessary". He admits we'd have more chances with them, but reckons PSG are in the same boat with their own players.
• We'll be going with the squad that's been in pre-season for the last four weeks, including some of the young lads.
• Emery is realistic: "Tomorrow we are not going to be on the pitch at our best moment" - but insists we'll compete and calls PSG the favourites (he said it about three times, classic Unai expectation management).

On PSR / UEFA financial rules forcing player sales

Asked directly whether the rules should change given we've had to sell three of our best players off the back of a trophy-winning season:

• "Yes, of course, I accept it" - but he was keen to stress how happy he is with the club's commitment and direction.
• Pointed to the consistency: top six for three years running, fourth last season, plus the Conference League run in year one and now a European trophy.
• Confirmed the club is pushing on with the Villa Park expansion to 50,000 next year.
• Honest bit: comparing us to City, Chelsea, United, Liverpool and Arsenal - "we are competing with them, but we don't have their power yet. But progressively we are doing our way." His message: don't compare with other clubs, be happy with our own path, stay resilient in bad moments like last August.

McGinn

• On expectations this season: same as recent years - "we have consistently competed with the best in England and in Europe". Acknowledges lots of change, but "what we have still is our main core - same manager, same methods, same desire to achieve more. A lot of people thought we had reached our ceiling a couple of seasons ago and we proved them wrong."
• On the PSG Champions League quarter-final: "We competed against the winners of the tournament and gave them their toughest two legs of the competition… If we want to win the match, we'll have to play our best and make sure they suffer the same way they did that night at Villa Park."

Victor

• Standard fare on the long season ahead: "We want to compete at the highest level, and that means playing in all competitions, especially in Europe. The squad is ready for that."
• A Georgian journalist tried to get him to name PSG's biggest threat and he wasn't having it: "They have world-class players in every position… I don't think it's fair for me to sit here and name just one."

The Palhinha question (asked in Spanish at the end)

A Portuguese journalist from Sport TV asked Emery - in Spanish - about the recent links with João Palhinha and whether he'd be a good signing. Emery's answer, translated:

So: no denial, a confirmation that signings ARE coming before the window shuts, and a "we all know him" nod to Palhinha. That's about as warm as Emery ever gets on transfer questions. Make of that what you will.

Other bits

• Emery has lost three Super Cup finals as a manager, including the Villarreal one against Chelsea on penalties (he says McGinn was winding him up about it last week after watching the highlights).
• "Always a trophy is something that can give us a special moment… if we are winning, of course, we are happy. If we are not winning, we are not happy." Peak Unai.
• 6,000 Villa fans travelling from Birmingham for the final - Emery says that gives the players a responsibility to play for them.

TL;DR: Weakened squad tomorrow (no Konsa/Watkins/Emi), PSG favourites, Emery defends the club's handling of PSR while admitting we can't match the big boys' spending power yet, Villa Park going to 50k, McGinn talking a good game - and Emery all but confirmed more signings are coming while conspicuously not denying the Palhinha links. UTV.