Villa host Newcastle United on August 16 in our opening Premier League game of the new campaign, and so it will be vital to ensure that everyone is back up to speed by then.
_**READ MORE: [Full Villa pre-season schedule 2025: Two more fixtures confirmed](https://talk-villa.com/aston-villa-full-pre-season-schedule-2025-marseille-villarreal-confirmed/)**_
With eight pre-season friendlies ahead, including three on our USA tour, the squad will get plenty of opportunities to get valuable minutes to build their fitness levels, but initial training got underway to start the week with eight players confirmed to have returned to the training ground.
Tyrone Mings, Jacob Ramsey, Ross Barkley, Andres Garcia, Boubacar Kamara, Lamare Bogarde, Joe Gauci and Alex Moreno were all either pictured on the [club’s social media accounts](https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2025/july/07/villans-return-for-pre-season-training/) or on their own personal accounts arriving at Bodymoor Heath, while there could have been others to have attended but weren’t shown.
A significant number of the Villa players will have been given an extended break due to their international commitments earlier in the summer, but the hope is that they’ll soon follow and complete the group, with Unai Emery, Monchi and the recruitment team likely to have a busy couple of months ahead of them in terms of transfer activity.
Villa have done little thus far, but having taken steps to secure our financial position to comply with the relevant regulations, both PSR and UEFA’s SCR, the focus is expected to soon switch to incomings and outgoings to hopefully strengthen this squad and make it more competitive.
Emery will no doubt assess those already in the squad based on what they showed last season and for the fringe players perhaps what they do in pre-season, while it will be interesting to see who doesn’t ultimately report back as that would be the clearest indication yet that they are expected to move on this summer.
For now though, it’s great to see a number of key individuals back working at the training ground and getting back up to speed, while in the case of Moreno in particular, time will tell if he’s just ticking along as he awaits a move elsewhere after his loan spell last season, or if Emery is open to the idea of giving the Spaniard a fresh opportunity to provide competition and back-up for the left-back position.
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