In the middle, Villa have welcomed three new faces: Amadou Onana, Enzo Barrenechea and Ross Barkley.
Onana is the most significant of those arrivals, a player who has long been linked with a club in Europe’s top competition.
Although it helped t
Onana is a different style of player, and one that can still improve considerably through Emery’s coaching.
heir PSR conundrum, Villa will have been loath to lose Douglas Luiz, who was crucial to their success last term.
Emery transformed Moussa Diaby at Villa last season, and will hope to improve another big-money signing, who seemingly has his doubters at other top clubs.
That being said, Luiz wasn’t the only midfielder who left Villa this summer, Morgan Sanson and Tim Iroegbunam also made more low key exits last month.
And having joined Everton for £9m, Iroegbunam has now made a bold claim about his decision to leave Villa.
Iroegbunam was speaking to The Athletic about switching from Emery’s coaching to life under Sean Dyche on Merseyside.
And when the 21-year-old, who made 19 senior appearances for Villa in total, was asked about his decision to leave this summer, he claimed it actually wasn’t too tough at all.
Iroegbunam pointed to his West Brom roots, perhaps suggesting that he was still emotionally attached to Villa’s local rivals.
He said: “I was there for three years [Villa], so it was part of my life. But I wouldn’t say it was tough [to leave] because before that I was at West Brom.
