With pre-season fast approaching, Unai Emery will welcome his Aston Villa squad back to Bodymoor Heath next week ahead of the new campaign.
Given his work ethic and well-documented obsession with the game, it’s questionable as to how long the Spaniard’s ‘break’ has been this summer, but he’ll certainly ramp up his analysis of the squad in the coming weeks as he makes important decisions moving forward.
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The signing of Youri Tielemans has been confirmed to strengthen our midfield, but speculation has linked Marvelous Nakamba, Morgan Sanson and Leander Dendoncker with exits this summer, with Fabrizio Romano reporting that Villa will listen to offers for the Belgian international.
While Nakamba and Sanson departed on loan in January and face real doubts over their respective futures at Villa, Dendoncker was a key depth option last season having made 26 appearances across all competitions.
In turn, if Emery is comfortable with allowing him to leave, that will mean a void will be left to fill. The likelihood of a new signing providing a solution to that particular problem is high, but could it also be paving a path for Tim Iroegbunam to play a role in the new season?
The 20-year-old made four appearances at senior level for us last year, but to help his development, he was sent out on loan to QPR, where he made 32 appearances in the Championship and would have benefitted greatly from that experience.
While he underwent surgery following the conclusion of the last campaign, the hope is that he’s fully recovered and ready to begin pre-season training with the rest of the squad next week, and he’ll have a big opportunity to make an impression on Emery to earn a place in his squad this year.
Villa do have other factors to consider in terms of meeting necessary home-grown quotas as we hope to advance beyond the playoff round of the Europa Conference League, albeit it has been reported that Iroegbunam won’t satisfy that specific criteria, but we’ll also hope to enjoy deep runs in the domestic cup competitions and so depth will be needed.
Whether that’s enough possible game-time to keep Iroegbunam, and others including the likes of Cameron Archer, in the squad rather than loan him out again remains to be seen. Having had that all-important loan experience already though where he played a prominent role and showcased his ability and potential, the natural progression is surely to be part of our first-team next, if Emery deems him to be both good enough and ready.
Having signed a new long-term contract last year to keep him with us until 2027, there is hopefully a big future ahead of him in a Villa shirt, and the next couple of weeks in pre-season could determine whether or not that journey begins this year. If it does, there is little doubt that Emery will be a significantly positive influence on the young midfielder’s development.