Aston Villa continue their pre-season preparations this week, with the likes of Emiliano Martinez, Ezri Konsa, John McGinn and Ollie Watkins all among those to return to the training ground on Monday.
As per the club’s social media posts last week, a number of players began to filter back in at Bodymoor Heath to begin their training for the upcoming campaign, while those who were on international duty after last season concluded were given additional time off to rest and recover.
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However, with our first pre-season game against Walsall rapidly approaching this week, Unai Emery is gradually getting his full squad back together again this week with another 12 players confirmed to have returned to training on Monday, as seen in the club’s latest batch of images along with some of the players posting on their individual accounts.
Emiliano Martinez, Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Lucas Digne, Youri Tielemans, John McGinn, Morgan Rogers, Donyell Malen, Amadou Onana, Ollie Watkins, Emiliano Buendia and Samuel Iling-Junior were all pictured taking part in the session in the gym before being put through their paces outside.
Naturally, some of those named above would have gained more attention than others, namely Martinez after a month of speculation over his future at the club, as well as Buendia and Iling-Junior with the potential for the pair to move on ahead of the new season having spent time out on loan last year.
Nevertheless, it’s good to see the squad filling out and numbers increasing as we step up the intensity of training ahead of our pre-season schedule getting underway, and time will tell who can impress in the coming weeks having perhaps been considered to be on the fringes heading into the new campaign.
We’ll possibly know more before our USA tour as Emery will likely want to trim down the squad and focus on those who are part of his plans for this season from that point onwards in particular, while it remains to be seen when the final few players return and when we’ll potentially see some new faces arrive to strengthen the group and ensure we’re increasingly competitive moving forward.
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