If Villa are to succeed, then the experience of their longer-serving players – including WSL mainstays such as defender Anna Patten, midfielder Missy Bo Kearns and star striker Rachel Daly – will have a major role to play.

“We have a lot of new players from different leagues, so I can integrate and drive them, show them what the standards are to be a top WSL team,” Kearns told BBC Sport.

“I have played a lot of football in the WSL and English football, it helps a lot. And as the league develops, we grow with the league and develop.”

Villa may not be WSL founder members but, entering their seventh year in the top flight, they are mainstays. Having played all their home league games at Villa Park since 2024, they have looked to position themselves as one of the league’s bigger sides.

Like their WSL mid-table rivals, their summer investment shows their desire to push towards the top four.

We should be careful not to conflate the expectations of a club’s men’s and women’s teams, but the men are in the Champions League this season and Villa’s women also have eyes on Europe.

“The top teams of course invest and sign players for a lot of money, but you also have mid-table teams pushing for those top spots,” goalkeeper Emily Ramsey – one of the eight summer signings, from Everton – tells BBC Sport.

“London City have invested a lot of money, they will expect to challenge. Spurs and Brighton showed they could do it at times last season. There is no longer so many expected outcomes, the top teams feel that which is why they are investing.

“For Aston Villa, there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to trying to push up for those European spots.”

So is Champions League the aim?

“I don’t think that is out of reach. We want to play with the shackles off; we want to make Villa Park a hard place to come and play. If we play with confidence, I don’t see why we can’t reach those top spots.”

Real Betis are in advanced talks with AZ Alkmaar over a 20m euros (£17.1m) deal to sign Republic of Ireland striker Troy Parrott.

It is understood an agreement between the Dutch club Alkmaar and Spain’s Betis is now close.

West Ham had been heavily linked with a move for the 24-year-old forward, who began his career at Tottenham.

Parrott joined Alkmaar in July 2024 from Spurs, having spent the previous season on loan at another Dutch club, Excelsior Rotterdam.

He began last season in prolific form, scoring 10 goals in his first seven appearances but a knee ligament injury sustained at the end of August kept him out of action until October.

Parrot ended the Dutch league season with 16 goals in 28 games and he also shone on the international stage as he helped the Republic of Ireland secure qualification for the World Cup play-offs.

In November last year he scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Portugal and three days later added a hat-trick, including a 96th-minute winner, in a 3-2 win away to Hungary.

In doing so, Parrott became the first Republic of Ireland player to score a hat-trick in an away game for the men’s team and the first Irish player to score a competitive treble for the men’s team since Robbie Keane in 2014.

The forward, capped 37 times, is again set to be a pivotal player for Heimir Hallgrimsson’s side in the forthcoming Nations League in which the Irish will face Kosovo, Austria and Israel in Group B3.

Real Betis finished fifth in La Liga in the 2025-26 season, meaning that they qualified for the Champions League.