Where Should Villa Be Looking To Strengthen Over The Summer

After plenty of struggles in the 2019/20 campaign as Aston Villa readjusted back to the Premier League level, we’ve had a surprisingly good first half to 2020/21 and rather than looking down towards the relegation places, so are some murmurings about a potential Europa League campaign next term if we can keep this progress going.

Now, it hasn’t all been sweetness and light this year, there have been some woeful performances and seriously disappointing defeats where we should’ve at least taken a point and VAR continues to be a major bugbear for many – but in reality, the improvement has been very stark and there is little to complain about as we’re on an upward curve and this group has still got plenty of improvement in it.

Villa really are a different beast now compared to 24 months ago, but we have to build on it, and there’s already plenty of talk about what calibre of player for specific positions we should be looking at in the next transfer window.

Vital Villa’s 2021 Transfer Rumour Forum Thread

Do we bring in guaranteed starting XI types and improve the bench and our depth that way, or do we look to strengthen the bench so we don’t overly upset the clear spirit we now have in the group?

Here are the thoughts of forum member Idgavfc.

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So we need a solid 25 man squad, not including U21 homegrown players (Ramsey, Barry, anyone else who may play a part from the academy next season).

Definite squad members next season (13):

ST: Watkins

CAM/Wingers: Traore/Grealish

CM/CDM: McGinn/Sanson/Douglas Luiz

CB: Mings/Konsa/Hause

RB/LB: Cash/Targett

GK: Martinez/Heaton

Probable squad members next season (7):

ST: Wesley/Davis

CAM/Wingers: Barkley/Trezeguet/El Ghazi

CM/CDM: Nakamba

CB:

RB/LB:

GK: Steer

Even if we keep all of the “probable” squad members above, we still have room in the 25 man senior squad for five new players, which should include two fullbacks and a centre back.

I personally don’t think we will keep El Ghazi, Steer, and one of Davis or Wesley, which should open up room for a further striker, winger, and attacking midfielder.

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Now, there are plenty of assumptions there as to who we will look to move on and Ahmed Elmohamady and Neil Taylor are out of contract this summer as well, but I think our business will be dictated mainly by departures this summer.

Or failing that, we’ll really go for it and we’ll see Lionel Messi finally rock up at B6. He’s been vaguely linked before don’t forget – Here