Story · Aston Villa
Aston Villa youngsters show promise in friendly defeat to Real Sociedad
Aston Villa lost 4-2 to Real Sociedad in a pre-season friendly, but the match highlighted the potential of young players Brian Madjo and George Hemmings, who both scored. Manager Unai Emery, a perfectionist, was frustrated but has time to prepare for the new season. Teenage striker Madjo, a 6ft 4in England Under-17 international signed from Metz for £10m, cannot yet play competitively due to FIFA transfer rules, but Villa are appealing to CAS. Midfielder Hemmings also impressed. Several first-team players were absent due to World Cup rest or injury, including Ollie Watkins, Tammy Abraham, and Amadou Onana. The club remains in the market for a striker, with Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson a top target.
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