Aston Villa have booked a pre-season friendly against National League North side Leamington next month.The Brakes have confirmed that Villa will be sending their under-23 squad for the fixture which will take place on Wednesday, July 21 with kick-off at 7.30pm.The match will take place at the Your Co-op Community Stadium - 45 minutes south of Villa Park - with Leamington hopeful of welcoming supporters for the game.Leamington's home ground has a capacity of 2,300, and a club spokesman said via its website: "We hope to be able to welcome supporters for the game but this will depend on loosening of restrictions. We will update here and on social media in due course."A statement added: "Having faced a young Villa side behind closed doors in pre season last year Paul Holleran and his team will be well aware of the quality the Premier League club's youngsters, who will provide another much needed workout as we gear up for the new season."Mark Delaney's and George Boateng's under-23s will return to pre-season training alongside the first team at Bodymoor Heath on Monday, July 5. Villa's side against Leamington will feature the majority of the FA Youth Cup-winning side with Brad Young, Aaron Ramsey, Louie Barry, Arjan Raikhy and Kaine Kesler all set to feature.As for Villa's first team, the club is yet to confirm its plans for this summer with Villa still awaiting the next government update in terms of travelling abroad.BirminghamLive has been informed that the bulk of Villa's training camp will be conducted in the UK with the hope of a few days in Europe at some stage for more intense training and some friendlies.Head coach Dean Smith told us: "We’ve planned around when we start back. Pre-season is already planned. The players will return on July 5."We’ve got games sorted already. We’ve got a really good academy at the moment at the club and have just won the FA Youth Cup so that will help make a few additions to the training group as we start our pre-season. We can have a good look at them and they can see how we work at first-team level."We're also looking at the possibility (of going abroad). We have a Plan A where we go abroad and a Plan B where we don’t. We are hopeful we can but it will be government-binding, whether it’s a green-listed country or not."But we've also touched base with Lovre Kalinic, Freddy Guilbert and Conor Hourihane and they’ll all be reporting back for training. Conor will be on July 11 because he’s got international games. Kalinic may get called up for the Euros so that will be progression-dependent. Fred Guilbert will start back on July 5."
Where did Dean give his quotes, at a presser or on the blower? The chap should still be on well-deserved hols in the Highlands.
I'm fairly sure Leamington ground is basically a field in the middle of nowhere, was going to go a few years back when Walsall were playing them in pre season but something else came up so didn't tick it off.Sure Woodhall's been there on a few occasions.
Aston Villa will entertain La Liga side Sevilla at Villa Park as part of pre-season preparations for the forthcoming 2021/22 campaign.Villa will face a tough test against a Sevilla side who finished fourth in Spain’s top flight last season, once again securing a place in the UEFA Champions League this term, and have won the Europa League in four of the last eight years, subsequently going on to compete in four Super Cup finals.Dean Smith’s side will host the Spanish outfit on Saturday, August 7 (ko 3pm) – a week before their Premier League campaign gets underway against Watford.There will also be pre-season fixtures against neighbours Walsall and Stoke City this summer, in addition to a behind-closed-doors match at the club’s Bodymoor Heath Training Ground against Nottingham Forest.The dates and kick-off times are below:Wednesday, July 21 (ko 7.30pm) - Walsall (A)Saturday, July 24 (ko 3pm) - Stoke City (A)Wednesday, July 28 (ko 1pm) - Nottingham Forest (H – Bodymoor Heath)Saturday, August 7 (ko 3pm) - Sevilla (H – Villa Park)Please note, the match against Nottingham Forest will not be accessible to supporters but full ticket details for our other three confirmed fixtures will be released in due course.The club are hopeful of adding additional matches to the pre-season schedule and will update supporters with any further information.