Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is beginning to welcome back more players for pre-season, with captain John McGinn among those to return on Monday.
The players involved in the World Cup have rightly been given extended breaks following the conclusion of the tournament earlier this month, and for those who exited in the earlier stages, they are now back at Bodymoor Heath to join the rest of their teammates.
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Naturally, those who advanced to the latter stages in the USA will be given additional time to rest and recover, but it’s hoped that we’ll see them return to the fold for our upcoming Asia tour, as Emery will want to have the full group at his disposal for as much of pre-season as possible.
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For now though, there was good news on Monday morning as McGinn returned to the training ground to get his preparations underway, and he was joined by Evann Guessand and new signing Alejandro Garnacho in working with the rest of the group.
While it’s imperative for Garnacho to now settle in and adapt to the demands of Emery as quickly as possible in order to hopefully make a positive start to the new campaign having joined us on an initial loan deal from Chelsea, it’s also important for Guessand to get fit and either play his way into the plans of the Villa boss or earn himself a move elsewhere with his performances in the remainder of our pre-season schedule.
In turn, it’s a triple boost for differing reasons, but it’s good for the competitiveness within the squad that we’ve got senior players reporting back and raising the level in training alongside their experienced teammates, and our youngsters who are working with the first-team over the summer.
After missing our defeat to Porto this past weekend, it was also good to see Alysson pictured arriving at Bodymoor Heath as it’s hoped that he has recovered from the knock that he sustained against Walsall to feature in our remaining outings, while Emiliano Buendia and Boubacar Kamara worked on the grass too in a positive sign that they could feature this week.
Villa face Real Sociedad on Tuesday night at the Bescot Stadium before we depart for the start of our Asia tour, which begins with an encounter against Indonesia All Stars. All eyes will no doubt be on the squad boarding the plane later this week, as we await an update on Pau Torres and others as to whether or not they will feature in the coming fortnight or not.
