Aston Villa season preview: Europe in sights as Dean Smith prepares for life after Jack Grealish

A British record transfer sale to another top-flight side, but will the reinvested funds push them higher?

Winger Buendia was signed from Norwich after Grealish left Villa Park (Getty Images)

Last season

A massive improvement on 2019/20, where they avoided relegation on the final day. Last season Villa were pushing the European places for quite some time, until a backlog of games caught up with them and eventually mid-table beckoned. Eleventh place was entirely respectable, with some of their early-season highlights including a 7-2 thrashing of then-champions Liverpool and a brilliant performance in a 3-0 win away to Arsenal. The second half of the campaign was far less consistent, so that’s where they’ll look to improve this time around.

Transfer window so far

Villa were on the receiving end of one of the three big transfer sagas of the summer, with the other two being Romelu Lukaku and Harry Kane’s prospective deals. Those ones may or may not go through; Jack Grealish has already left for Manchester City in a £100 million exit which was accompanied by a video explainer from CEO Christian Purslow. Replacing their talisman are three players, rather than one: creativity in Emi Buendia, pace and dribbling from Leon Bailey and the hope of goals from Danny Ings. Ashley Young (free) and Axel Tuanzebe (loan) are other arrivals.

Manager

Dean Smith, a Villa man all the way and an extremely good head coach. Villa have a long-term plan to return to the top of the domestic game and he wants to be a part of it – and is so far showing he’s capable of handling every step. Smith brought them up from the Championship in 2019, then took the crucial next step of – just about – helping them avoid the drop. Last season was consolidation and progress; now it will be about how he can mould the team to be a little more attack-minded and consistent to trouble the top half of the table.

Key players

With Grealish gone the idea is to share the load far more in every respect, with Villa possessing several players who can fit the bill. Emi Martinez is one of the best goalkeepers in the top flight, competent, consistent and utterly sure of his own game. Ezri Konsa is surely set to make everyone realise just how good he is this season after two years of exceptional, if under-the-radar, performances, while John McGinn and Ollie Watkins already have legions of admirers. Of the new signings, former Norwich schemer Buendia has the brilliance to take them up a level.

What would be success?

Tricky one, as it depends in part on how the new signings gel and how quickly one or two of them establish themselves as undroppable to Smith. Bailey is a player who shone in short bursts in the Bundesliga rather than consistently over a campaign, for example, but if Buendia and Ings find their feet straight away, scoring more goals and winning more games is very achievable. Top half is the minimum aim this season for Villa, it feels, while outright success would be a cup semi-final or better and a push for a top-seven finish in the league. Gradual, but definite, improvement.

August fixtures

(a) vs Watford, Saturday 14 August, 3pm

(h) vs Newcastle, Saturday 21 August, 3pm

League Cup second round, Wednesday 24/25 August, tbc

(h) vs Brentford, Saturday 28 August, 3pm

Bookies’ ranking

9th (200/1 for the title)

Predicted first XI line-up

Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett; Philogene-Bidace, Nakamba, McGinn, Buendia; Ings, Watkins