Aston Villa kick off the 2025/26 Premier League season with a home fixture against Newcastle United on Saturday.
Newcastle head for Birmingham eager to overcome the distraction of the Alexander Isak saga, which is easier said than done given the player’s conduct over the past few weeks.
Eddie Howe will have his more professional players well prepared for the start of the season and Isak, who has seemingly yanked back on every lever he can find to force Newcastle’s hand so they let him leave for Liverpool’s valuation rather than their own, won’t be anywhere to be seen.
Isak’s behaviour has been difficult to watch even from the outside. Newcastle won a trophy last season and qualified for the Champions League. If that isn’t enough for a player to at least act professionally while clubs thrash out a deal, we’ve all got problems.
Newcastle and Villa have more in common in this regard than divides them. They finished fifth and sixth in the Premier League last season and have spent the summer looking up at four teams spending freely in the transfer market.
Those clubs have targeted Newcastle players and picked off a fair few that might otherwise have been on the way to Tyneside.
Liverpool bought Hugo Ekitike, Isak’s probable replacement, at the same time as going after Isak himself. João Pedro went to Chelsea, who’d already signed Liam Delap. James Trafford went back to Manchester City. They missed out on Benjamin Šeško too, albeit to a team lower down.
The Magpies will be fully focused on the job at hand now and Howe will only be interested in the players who have a contribution to make from Saturday onwards.
He will be without the injured Joe Willock while Anthony Gordon, like Villa’s Morgan Rogers, is a doubt but could well be available. Martin Dúbravka and Sean Longstaff have been sold to Burnley and Leeds United respectively, while Callum Wilson has joined West Ham United on a free transfer.
Despite experiencing some significant bumps in the road, Newcastle have made two expensive and smartly chosen additions in the form of Anthony Elanga from Nottingham Forest and Malick Thiaw from AC Milan.
Dúbravka will be replaced – possibly on the bench behind Nick Pope – by former Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, who makes an immediate return to the Premier League on loan from relegated Southampton.
Newcastle’s latest signing isn’t quite over the line yet but local reports suggest that Villa midfielder Jacob Ramsey will have his Magpies medical on Thursday ahead of a £40 million move.
The chances of him featuring on Saturday are slim at this point but it seems certain he will be at the wrong end Villa Park in Newcastle training gear when the teams warm up.
It’s a sad loss for Villa. Ramsey is a Villa supporter and academy product, not to mention an extremely talented footballer, but allowing him to leave after failing to agree a new contract makes sense financially and that’s the world in which we’re now living.
Newcastle, as a Champions League club, shouldn’t be feeling that to the same extent as Villa this summer. They don’t have the benefit of Club World Cup millions and extensive player sales like Chelsea, nor the global commercial clout of Liverpool or Arsenal, but the fact that their spending will go above £100 million and pales when compared to the teams that finished above them is a problem we should all be concerned about.
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