Where are Aston Villa aiming to finish in the Premier League next season?

A look at season objectives for Emery’s side.

Transcript

00:00Charlie, let's start with Aston Villa and their transfer merry-go-round. Obviously,

00:06we spoke about the PSR issues before the end of June, and we're now in July. What's the

00:13latest you can tell us, and is there any sort of developing rumours and updates that you

00:18can issue?

00:19It's funny you use the word merry-go-round, because it's exactly what I've been talking

00:23about all week, is how it's been such a merry-go-round for Villa. But it's pretty much complete now,

00:28that whole PSR problem that was going on for so many weeks. Villa now clear of any kind

00:33of worry of sanctions from the Premier League. There was one point when if Villa didn't make

00:37any sales, then they could have maybe received a points deduction or some sort of embargo

00:41or not able to carry on in the transfer window, as they would have hoped. But now that Douglas

00:45Luiz has completed his move to Juventus, those worries are out the window. And Omari Kellyman

00:50as well, going to Chelsea for £19 million, a massive help. Tim O'Rourke and them going

00:55to Everton for about £10 million, another help once again. There are swap deals in there

01:00though, with all three of those clubs. With Juventus, Luiz went there for £42 million.

01:05In return, Villa have bought Enzo Berenicea and Samuel Illing-Jr. for about £21 million

01:12combined. All separate transactions, though it's pretty much a swap deal. With Chelsea,

01:17of course they've signed Ian Mattson, £37.5 million. A bigger deal than what they've sold,

01:23but it works out pretty well for Villa, I think, in the long term. Getting a new left-back

01:27in who was in a Champions League final, in the Champions League team of the season and

01:31selling a youngster who's pretty unproven at this stage, I think that's pretty good

01:34business. And then from Everton, Lewis Dobbin was signed, a young striker who can add a

01:38bit of depth. So all of that's now out the way. I think Villa fans can stop worrying

01:42about is it going to be announced? Is it actually done? It is for all of those deals. So a relief

01:47for me as well.

01:49And of course, an incredible finish in the Premier League last season that secured European

01:55football again, obviously this time in the form of the best club competition on the earth

01:59with the Champions League. Let's look ahead to where they're obviously going to go into

02:06this season and aim for surely another go at that Champions League, but they might have

02:11to sort of understand that with those Champions League games could sort of sacrifice a bit

02:15of a lead position. Where do you think they are going to be aiming towards finishing at

02:20the back end of next season?

02:22I think the aim is going to be to continue in that run in the Champions League. Whether

02:26or not that's going to happen or not, I think is a different story because last year there

02:30were two fewer games in the group stage of the Europa Conference League and it was the

02:34third best European competition. They're now going into the most elite one and everyone

02:38knows all the clubs that you can face in the Champions League, the likes of Barcelona and

02:43Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Juventus, the best teams in Europe. Unai Emery is not

02:48going to be able to rotate as much as he did last year in the Conference League. So I think

02:52they will run into some struggles with that fixture scheduling, how busy it's going to

02:56be, the oppositions they're facing, but they are building a squad that's going to be capable

03:01for that. So I think, yeah, top four is their aim, top six maybe more realistic, but everyone

03:07was so surprised by how they did last year. I'm sure they're just going to kick on again.

03:10They're doing so, so well under Unai Emery.