Express & Star

Villa fan column: Let's get going!

Aston Villa will always be a special club within English football, writes Justin Hawthorne.

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A founder member, a provider of more England internationals than almost all other clubs, we are in the small select group of English teams to have won the European cup, and the fifth most decorated club in the country. So to see the decline over the last 12 years has been a very sobering. experience indeed.

But things are changing, the lion is awakening from its slumber, the juggernaut is now starting to gain momentum once again.

We have two men to thank for that, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens. Much has already been written about how they saved the club in its hour of need and the subsequent transformation we have seen under Dean Smith and co. since they arrived.

We all know the story now, promotion back to the Premier League with a record 10 game winning run, a play-off final win against Derby, and a great escape against all odds last season.

So where now?

Well as the old saying goes, “the only way is up” and so far this summer it’s been all go.

Firstly Suso departed to be replaced by Johan Lange, then the coaching set up was bolstered by the arrival of the very experienced Craig Shakespeare.

Initially on the transfer front it was very quiet, however the club quickly set about signing some of the country’s top young talent to supplement the players we already have.

It’s actually great to see the owners and board recognising its all well and good spending millions on first-team players but the true value and heart of any club is its academy, we only need look at Jack Grealish to see the value of players coming through, not only financially but to keep the connection between the players and the supporters.

After last season's big turnover of players it was never going to be a repeat this summer, it's looking like maybe four or five players are coming in with probably the same amount leaving.

This summer has seen us splashing £14m rising to £16m for Nottingham Forest's Matty Cash, a club record £28m rising to £33m for forward Ollie Watkins and £19m for Arsenal hero from last season Emiliano Martinez.

At the time of writing we are believed to be close to signing Bertrand Traore from Lyon for around the £19m mark. That is around the £80m spend so far and it's looking like we aren’t finished yet with reportedly another forward and a midfielder on the shopping list.

Moving onto the season, I’m very confident we can improve on last year and with post lockdown Villa still fresh in all our minds I think the entire fanbase will be hoping the same.

The improvement, especially at the back was very evident to see, if that can continue into the new season and with John McGinn now fully fit and Douglas Luiz established in the holding role we look a very solid outfit defensively.

Going forward was our Achilles heel in the 10 game mini-season and that’s where it's looking like we are strengthening the most, with Wesley still a while away from fitness and Mbwana Samatta looking likely to leave, we are, for the time being left with Keinan Davis and record signing Watkins.

There will be a lot expected of Watkins and from the limited amount I’ve seen of him in pre-season I really think we could have a bargain in him, I also think Davis will improve as well. He looked sharp coming off the bench against Burton in the cup mid-week and the goal will do his confidence the world of good.

No Villa article is complete without talking about the main man super Jack, of all the deals we could have possibly done in pre-season there was only one we all wanted to see and when the news broke this week of him committing to another five years at the club it couldn’t have been a bigger boost to the whole club on the eve of the new season.

The newly capped England international will obviously once again be the pivotal player for us and now the worry of him leaving has gone he can concentrate on doing what he does best winning games for his boyhood club.

We start with Sheffield United at home and Fulham away, and these are critical games for us. It's a big chance to get off to a flying start and whilst Sheffield United are coming off the back of a superb first season, I think we can beat them at home and if we can follow it up with at least a point at Craven Cottage we will all be very pleased

I now contribute to a great fan run podcast with four other villa fans, it's called UTVPodcast we can be found on Twitter and YouTube, we welcome all Villa fans to also jump on board so get on over and subscribe!