Aston Villa
Championship transfer XI of the summer featuring West Brom and Stoke City stars
Championship Transfer XI featuring Leeds, West Brom and Stoke City signings
Now that the transfer window in England is closed, we can take a look at some of the deals from the last couple of months. Some clubs have been relatively quiet during the summer, while others made outstanding deals. Here’s a perfect starting XI, with a 4-2-3-1 formation, based on the transfers in the English second-tier this summer.
Championship transfer XI
GK: Jamal Blackman (Leeds)
Jamal Blackman made a switch from Chelsea to Leeds on loan in July after impressing at Sheffield United last term. The 24-year-old made 33 appearances in all competitions for the Blades last season, keeping 10 clean sheets. He will challenge Bailey Peacock-Farrell for a starting spot, and he seems like a great signing for Marcelo Bielsa.
Jamal Blackman
RB: Jack Hunt (Bristol City)
Jack Hunt made the switch from Sheffield Wednesday to Bristol City this summer. Hunt is a fast and explosive player, who has been consistent for all sides he’s played for. He has vast experience in the Championship and could be crucial for the Robins’ ambition to finish in the top-6.
CB: Paddy McNair (Middlesbrough)
If he manages to stay fit, McNair can bring a lot to the table for Middlesbrough. He’s a versatile player, who can be used both as a centre-back and as a defensive midfielder. During his time with Sunderland, he even played behind the striker on some occasions, and in the past, we’ve seen him operate as a right-back as well. The Northern Irishman is an athletic, powerful footballer, who’s not afraid to get stuck in a challenge. Add to that his ability to score when going forward, and you have a very decent player on your hands.
CB: John O’Shea (Reading)
John O’Shea brings the knowledge and calm head Reading have been lacking in recent seasons. The Irishman is vastly experienced, having won numerous trophies with Manchester United, while also playing strongly for Sunderland. Even though he’s 37, he’s still a top player who can help the Royals with his experience.
Jack Colback
LB: Conor Townsend (WBA)
Townsend is set to provide cover and competition for Kieran Gibbs. Having come through the ranks at Hull City, Townsend had loan spells at Grimsby, Chesterfield, Carlisle, Dundee and Scunthope before settling at Glanford Park. West Brom fans can expect to see a versatile left-footer, who traditionally plays as a defender, but can operate in a more attacking role if called upon. He contributed with four goals in League One last season as Scunthorpe made it to the play-off semifinals.
CM: Jack Colback (Nottingham Forest)
The former Sunderland man has many useful qualities. He’s comfortable with the ball at his feet, his positioning is top notch, and his passing ability is also excellent. He’s vastly experienced, with almost 180 games in the Premier League for both Sunderland and Newcastle. He quickly became an important player for Karanka last season when he was on loan, taking part in 16 games and scoring one goal. He played full 90 minutes in all of those matches and missed just one – against Barnsley, when he was on the bench. His stay at City Ground was quite productive and enjoyable for both him and the fans. His passing percentage was 89.6%, he made 2.7 tackles per game, and had 0.9 key passes.
Tom Ince
CM: John McGinn (Aston Villa)
McGinn joined Aston Villa from Hibernian. He’ll aim to bring some energy to the Villa midfield. McGinn is known for being a player who likes getting stuck into challenges.
AMR: Tom Ince (Stoke)
Ince has scored 78 goals in 300 career games in all competitions and he’s still only 26. He’s played for clubs such as Derby County and Huddersfield, and seems like the type of player who can help Stoke City return to the top-flight.
AMC: Emi Buendia (Norwich)
Buendia, who joined on a 4-year deal from Getafe, can play both as a winger and as a classic No. 10. After Alex Pritchard left in January, Norwich visibly struggled and won just 6 out of 21 games in the Championship. Buendia could help them for sure.
Dwight Gayle
AML: James McClean (Stoke)
McClean has been capped 59 times for Ireland, while the 29-year-old also has huge experience on the domestic scenes. He has made 356 career appearances, almost half of which have come in the Premier League with Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion. He has scored 54 goals throughout his career as well, assisting a further 42.
Read more: Stoke City have struck gold with the signing of this experienced Premier League veteran
CF: Dwight Gayle (WBA)
Gayle has been at Newcastle for two years since joining them from Crystal Palace. He scored 23 goals during the 2016/17 season, playing a large part in the Magpies’ promotion from the Championship. He made a loan switch to WBA as part of the deal to take Salomon Rondon to St. James’ Park. Last term the Englishman managed just 6 goals in the Premier League and will be looking to find his form at The Hawthorns.
Leon Bailey is a Jamaican professional football player who plays as a right winger for Serie A club Roma, on loan from Premier League club Aston Villa, and for the Jamaican national team and in this article, we will see more about the player’s Net Worth, Salary, Sponsors, Girlfriend, Tattoos, Cars, and more.
Leon Patrick Bailey famously called Leon Bailey joined Aston Villa from the German club Bayer Leverkusen in 2021. He is one of the top talents in Jamaica and has been playing at a top level in recent times. He works hard on the pitch and has high dreams of achieving a lot in the footballing world.
He has won the Belgian Young Footballer of the year in 2015 back in his times at Genk and later he moved to Leverkusen. He represents the Jamaican national football team since 2019 and has been playing regularly for the team. Let us get to know more about the winger’s profile in this article.
Leon Bailey’s Net Worth and Salary
Leon Bailey is a young player and footballing has contributed much to his earnings. The player’s net worth is estimated to be €17 million as of 2026. The market value of the player in 2026 is valued at €35.00m by Transfermarkt. He currently earns a whopping salary of 6 Million Euros per year playing for the club Roma. His salary at Serie A is higher than what he was earning for Aston Villa.
Leon Bailey Club Career
Leon began his youth career with Phoenix All-Stars. In 2015, Bailey joined the Belgian club Genk and quickly established himself as one of the top young talents in the league. He helped Genk win the Belgian Cup in 2016 and was named the league’s best young player in the same year.
Since joining Bayer Leverkusen in January 2017, Bailey has continued to impress with his performances on the field. In his first full season with the club, he scored 12 goals and provided 5 assists in all competitions. He also helped Leverkusen reach the final of the DFB-Pokal.
In the 2018-2019 season, Bailey was the club’s top scorer with 12 goals and 8 assists. He was also named in the Bundesliga Team of the Season. He continued his impressive form in the 2019-2020 season with 8 goals and 8 assists.
Bailey signed for Premier League club Aston Villa. He made his debut as a substitute on 14 August 2021 and scored his first goal for Villa on 18 September 2021 in a 3–0 home victory over Everton. His first season with Aston Villa was marked by several injuries which limited him to only 7 starts.
Leon Bailey International Career
Bailey made his debut for the Jamaica national team in 2016 and has since represented his country at several tournaments, including the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Caribbean Cup. In May 2019, Bailey was named to the Jamaican provisional squad for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup and officially announced that he would represent the Reggae Boyz.
He earned his first cap in June 2019 and scored his first goal for Jamaica in September 2019 in a CONCACAF Nations League match. It’s also noted that Bailey was eligible to represent England but he has no grandparents born in England. He moved to the Aston Villa club in 2021 and was a top performer for the club. Leon Bailey moved to the Serie A club Roma in 2025 on loan. Reports indicate he will join Roma permanently after the season.
Leon Bailey Family
Leon Bailey was born on 9 August 1997 in Kingston, Jamaica. His father’s name is Craig Butler, and his mother’s name is not known but they struggled a lot to make him reach professional-level football. The other details of the family are not revealed yet.
Leon Bailey’s Girlfriend
The Winger has been enjoying his relationship with Stephanie Hope. The couple has been a joyful pair. The couple is blessed with a baby boy who is still unnamed and The proud father loves to spend time with his young kid.
Leon Bailey Sponsors and Endorsements
Leon Bailey has not been seen endorsing any company on his social media accounts. The player is in his growing phase and will attract sponsors if he is able to show up his abilities and skills on the field.
Leon Bailey Cars and Tattoos
Leon Bailey has been spotted driving a Brabus Mercedes Benz in the streets of Kingston in Jamaica. It is certain that the player has a decent car collection in his garage to roam out. Like many footballers, Leon Bailey has inked his skin on both the left and right shoulders, hands, and on his chest.
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Aston Villa has a rich history of achievements in English football and here we learn about the top 10 Aston Villa players of all time.
10. Gordon Cowans
Gordon Cowans is one of Villa’s most decorated players in recent history, renowned for his brilliant passing. Cowans have won the European Cup, the First Division title, the League Cup, and the European Super Cup. In three stays with Villa, he scored 59 goals and made 527 appearances after joining as a 12-year-old schoolboy.
9. Billy Walker
Billy Walker is still Aston Villa’s all-time leading goalscorer, despite retiring in 1934. While this may speak to the club’s strikers in the past (*cough* Darius Vassell *cough*), it also testifies to what a fantastic player Walker was.
Walker, who played at Villa Park for 20 years and scored 244 goals in 531 games, will go down as one of the club’s all-time greats.
8. Dennis Mortimer
Dennis Mortimer will be remembered as the captain of Aston Villa during their most successful period. Mortimer was the guy who raised the European Cup in Rotterdam on May 26, 1982, after a historic victory over Bayern Munich. After leading the claret and blues to the First Division title the year before, the Liverpudlian midfielder was instrumental in Villa’s continental triumph. For Villa, Mortimer appeared in almost 400 games.
7. James Milner
The former Aston Villa midfielder has made one of the most Premier League appearances, scoring 55 goals and assisting 83 others.
He made 129 games for Villa before moving on to become Liverpool’s vice-captain. James Milner had his greatest season between 2009 and 2010, winning the PFA Young Player of the Year title.
6. Peter Withe
The idyllic years of the early 1980s would not have been possible without Peter Withe‘s ambition.
Withe scored 92 goals in 233 appearances for Villa between arriving for a record £500,000 deal from Newcastle in 1980 and departing for Sheffield United in 1985.
Twenty of those goals helped Villa win the First Division in 1981, and he is still the last player to score so many league goals in a season three decades later. The next year, he scored Villa’s most famous goal, a shinned effort that won the European Cup in 1982.
5. Tony Morley
Tony Morley was not a great goalscorer, but he was a wonderful goalscorer who got famous for them when playing for Aston Villa in the early 1980s.
Under Ron Saunders’ guidance, the nimble winger assisted on Villa’s European Cup-winning goal in 1982 and helped them win the league title in 1981.
4. Peter McParland
Between 1952 and 1962, Peter McParland was the attacking midfielder for Aston Villa, making 293 games and scoring a total of 98 goals, more than any other side he played for throughout his career.
He is most remembered for scoring two goals in the 1957 FA Cup final against Aston Villa and Manchester United.
3. Dwight Yorke
Dwight Yorke is undoubtedly the best striker Aston Villa has had in the Premier League era, despite leaving in contentious circumstances for Manchester United.
Yorke was signed by Villa Park after being discovered by Graham Taylor on a pre-season tour of the West Indies in 1989. He began his career as a right winger, but it was in the 1995/96 season that he was shifted to centre forward, where he rapidly established himself as one of the greatest in England, if not the globe.
2. Allan Evans
During his career with Aston Villa, from 1977 and 1989, Allan Evans was one of their top defenders. When Aston Villa won the European Cup in 1982, he was a member of the winning squad and later became the club’s captain, guiding them back to the First Division. Evans scored 63 goals in 473 games for Aston Villa during his tenure there.
1. Paul McGrath
Only six defenders have ever won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year Award, and Paul McGrath is one of them. During his time, he was one of the best centre-backs in the game. McGrath represented Aston Villa in more than 250 games and scored 9 goals.
He was a member of Ron Atkinson’s Villa team that challenged Manchester United for the Premier League title in the early 1990s, and some Villa fans simply refer to him as ‘God.’
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Manchester United Women host Aston Villa at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday afternoon, seeking to extend their unbeaten start to the 2025-26 WSL campaign.
Predicted Lineups
Manchester United (4-2-3-1): Tullis-Joyce, Sandberg, Janssen, Le Tissier, Riviere, Miyazawa, Malard, Toone, Zigiotti Olme, Park, Terland
Aston Villa (4-3-3): D’Angelo, Wilms, Patten, Deslandes, Maritz, Kendall, Taylor, Kearns, Maltby, Mullet, Hanson
United’s Momentum
Marc Skinner’s side defeated Brighton 3-2 last weekend, maintaining their perfect record. United remain one of two WSL teams yet to taste defeat after seven matches, alongside Chelsea who lead the table.
The Red Devils boast the division’s most prolific attack with 19 goals in seven games. Only Chelsea have conceded fewer, highlighting United’s strong start defensively and offensively.
Villa’s Resilience
Aston Villa sit eighth but haven’t lost since their 3-1 defeat to Chelsea in September. Robert de Pauw’s side have collected one win and three draws during that run, demonstrating defensive solidity away from home.
Villa held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw at Emirates Stadium, proving their capability against top opposition. Their unbeaten away record this season suggests they won’t arrive intimidated despite facing unbeaten United.
Head-to-Head Advantage
United have never lost to Villa across 13 meetings in all competitions, recording 10 wins and three draws. This dominant record provides confidence heading into Saturday’s encounter.
However, United have managed just one home league win this season, creating potential for Villa to cause an upset at Leigh Sports Village.
Where to Watch
Kick-off: Saturday, November 8, 12:00pm
Venue: Leigh Sports Village
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