What Aston Villa's perfect squad may look like after six transfers, new contracts and £75m exits

Steven Gerrard is a man on a mission, obsessed with transforming Aston Villa from a side that finished 14th to one competing with the top six and seven. The head coach really rallied in January to bring in Calum Chambers, Lucas Digne, Philippe Coutinho and Robin Olsen and, within a week of the season concluding, wrapped up permanent deals for both Coutinho and new signing Boubacar Kamara.

This summer marks Gerrard’s first full season at Villa Park and all eyes will be on a big improvement to last. To do that, the manager remains committed to bringing in elite-level operators and, here, we take a look at how each department of Gerrard’s squad could change next season.

Emi Martinez will be Villa’s first-choice goalkeeper next season, that’s a given. Sweden’s No.1 Olsen, meanwhile, is hopefully the next permanent addition through the doors at Villa Park with Gerrard wanting that very deal to happen. Olsen’s entering the final year of his contract at Roma and will be available for a cut-price fee of less than £5million. Finnish under-21 stopper Viljami Sinisalo is admired by head of goalkeeping Neil Cutler and will likely remain as third-choice heading into 2022/23.

A big, big area of improvement for Gerrard and his staff as he wants his Villa XI to be much more resolute next season. We all witnessed what happened on Sunday at the Etihad where City just needed to turn on a switch to score three inside six minutes. That alarmed Gerrard and, looking ahead, the likes of Matty Cash, Digne, Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa and Calum Chambers will all be retained. Kortney Hause will be available for a loan or a transfer while young right-back Kaine Kesler Hayden will step up. Villa do, though, hold strong interest in both Diego Carlos