New Aston Villa signings can take on famous shirt numbers after summer departures

Aston Villa have already signed five new players since the summer transfer window opened 10 days ago, while three have left Unai Emery's squad.

Villa had to raise funds to continue complying with the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and last week's £42m sale of Douglas Luiz put them in the clear. The Brazilian's switch to Juventus followed Tim Iroegbunam's £13m move to Everton and Omari Kellyman's transfer to Chelsea for £19m.

Lewis Dobbin was first through the door in a deal worth £9m, before Ian Maatsen signed a six-year deal after Villa agreed a £37.5m deal with Chelsea. In a separate deal to Luiz's move to Juventus, Samuel Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea signed for a deal worth £18.6m.

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Ross Barkley is the latest addition to Emery's squad, as he signed on July 1 in a deal worth just £5m from Luton Town. As well as the five new signings Villa have made so far this summer, Lino Sousa and Kosta Nedeljkovic will also train with their new teammates in pre-season after they headed out on loan in January following their transfers to the club.

Sousa spent the second half of the season on loan at Plymouth Argyle, while Nedeljkovic stayed at Crvena Zvezda for the remainder of the campaign.

All seven players will be assigned numbers for the new campaign, which usually happens at the start of August. Luiz's move to Juventus means number six will be available and no doubt Barkley would like to snap that up after wearing it at Luton last season.

Barrenechea, who is a typical 'number six', might opt for 45 after choosing to wear it at Frosinone last season. Iling-Junior wore 17 at Juventus and could pick that number again after Clement Lenglet has returned to Barcelona following his loan spell last term.

Number three would be Maatsen's if it were available, but Diego Carlos currently holds that shirt. However, Carlos, Alex Moreno and Calum Chambers could all leave the club before the start of the new season, which would free up the number three, 15 and 16.

Philippe Coutinho is set to leave on loan this summer and Maatsen could take his number 23 after wearing it at Borussia Dortmund last season.

Numbers 20, 21, 22, 26 and 28 are all currently available to pick from for Dobbin, Nedeljkovic and Sousa.

The number nine shirt is also up for grabs this summer after Bertrand Traore left the club last January. If Jhon Duran were to leave the club this summer, then a new forward would surely be signed and would target that number for the new campaign. If not, perhaps Leon Bailey would swap his number 31 for the famous number nine, which he wore at Bayer Leverkusen.

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