Aston Villa conclude their tour of the USA against Nashville SC

Aston Villa can confirm Yasin Özcan has joined R.S.C. Anderlecht on a season-long loan. The Turkish defender officially joined Villa this summer following a pre-contract agreement that was signed in February. Ozcan has already made over 70 senior appearances and has also been capped by his country at senior level.

Club celebrates our time in Tennessee

FixturesNashville SC Vs. Aston Villa - Sat, Aug 2nd 2025, 16:00 Unai Emery has offered an assessment of pre-season and how his Aston Villa side are progressing as they near the end of the club’s trip to the USA. Members of Villa’s squad returned to training in early July, before being joined a week later by the bulk of those who had been away on international duty over the summer. Fixtures against Walsall and Hansa Rostock kickstarted the club’s pre-season schedule, as we then embarked on our tour Stateside. The Villans kicked off against Eintracht Frankfurt in Kentucky before facing St. Louis City SC in Missouri, with the third and final match taking place against Nashville SC on Saturday – two weeks ahead of the start of the Premier League campaign. Asked if he is happy with what he’s seen in pre-season and the US, Emery replied: “We did two steps different. “Firstly, we started with a lot of young players because we have a responsibility as well to give them chances to be with us, to know how we are working, every day how it’s going. “And the level we want to achieve, as well with the younger players. “The second step we are doing and finishing on Saturday against Nashville is to try to get fit, again, with the players how we can build our structure for the season. “Some young players are still with us, maybe the squad can change in the last month or last weeks in August for the transfer window. “But, overall, our structure, more or less, is now here.” Emery added: “And we are playing (in pre-season), with our target not being the result. “Our target now is to try and play, sharing players, not focusing on the starting XI, focusing a little bit more for our structure, our overall structure we want to achieve with the players in our squad. “On Saturday, it’s the last match for us in Nashville. “I know they’re going to play, demanding from us a lot because they’re playing at home with their supporters as well. “Every team we are facing here, they want to show their capacity, test their level with our team and, really, we will play trying as well to compete, thinking how we are building our team.”                  The Villa boss was speaking to media ahead of Saturday’s encounter against Nashville, and further discussed being in the USA, objectives for the new season, competing in the Premier League, challenging in Europe and more. You can watch the full video below…

After three years at Manchester United’s academy, 47-year-old manager says there is no shortcut to success “I don’t want to name-drop,” says David Hughes, the Newport County manager, mindful of his reply to a question about the coaches who have shaped his career to this point, and whether he canvassed their opinion before taking the job this summer. The 47-year-old has spent the past three seasons at Manchester United, in an instrumental academy role as a development-phase coach, and prior to that worked at Aston Villa, Cardiff, clubs for whom he also played, and Southampton. This may be his first real shot at frontline management – aside from a few months in charge of Barry Town more than two decades ago – but he is anything but inexperienced. The close season always brings change but it is hard to imagine a starker shift than Hughes swapping a global institution for Newport, with one of the smallest budgets in League Two. He has added two performance analysts to his team but it is a skeleton operation compared to United’s academy structure, where he worked closely with Nick Cox, who is moving to Everton as their technical director. “Big, big clubs have huge numbers of staff, different levels of responsibility and accountability,” Hughes says. “But we’re really pleased with our small staff. We came back for pre-season and the goals were green from last season, so we went out as staff cleaning the goalposts and I’m thinking: ‘We’ve got a team here.’ Everybody’s prepared to muck in.” Continue reading...

Images from USA as Villans get back to work

Stream Aston Villa's final friendly of their pre-season trip to the USA

David Moyes frustrated again in the transfer market Coach already missed out on Conceição and Bakayoko Southampton have rejected a £27m bid from Everton for Tyler Dibling, leaving the Merseyside club to consider an improved offer to land the England Under-21 international. The 19-year-old was one of the few pluses in a troubled season for the relegated club and has attracted interest from Aston Villa, Fulham and West Ham. He has two years remaining on his contract at St Mary’s Stadium and is believed to be open to a move to Merseyside. Continue reading...

Driven by the ambitious ownership of Tom Wagner and an NFL icon, the Blues intend to take the second tier by storm Unsurprisingly, Tom Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion and global sporting icon, is braced for the challenges that await Birmingham City, where he is a minority owner. “Just because you were successful last year doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful this year,” he says, alluding to a season that culminated in promotion and a record-breaking tally of 111 points. “You have to put the same amount of work, commitment and discipline in – sometimes more – because the stakes only get higher. When the competition gets tougher, the margin of error gets smaller.” It is his final answer in an interview that takes in everything from the “blue-collar nature of Birmingham”, which he compares with Cleveland and Cincinnati, to the Championship landscape and the bubbling rivalry with Aston Villa, which he was educated on during his first visit to England’s second-biggest city after acquiring his 3.3% stake. Continue reading...

The Villans are placed in Group E

Read the manager's thoughts after our latest pre-season fixture