"It won’t surprise anyone to learn we remain deeply ambitious. Our five-year plan is to consistently improve and to consistently improve, you have to keep improving the quality of both your starting XI and your squad. We have plans to do both this summer.

"We are at a point where after two highly active summers, it will be a smaller number of ins. I would expect players who came in last year to continue to improve. With a couple of smart signings to make us even stronger, we are highly optimistic looking to next season."

Fans will be buzzing

After ending the Premier League season on a high with consecutive victories over the likes of Spurs and Chelsea, Villa can head into the transfer window with a real bounce and optimism. The Midlands club enjoyed a superb summer transfer window last time, with the signings of Ollie Watkins and Emi Martinez, in particular, being a couple of the stand-outs. The fact that Purslow has insisted that the club have "extremely precise plans", and that they have been talking all throughout the season, suggests they have got their ideas in place about what they want to do. Transfer windows are generally all about organisation and not leaving things till the last minute, and with the added obstacle of the EUROs, that is perhaps more important than ever. [snack-amp-story url="https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/villa-dean-smith-transfer-gossip-rumours-news-premier-league-buendia-berge-mcneil-trezeguet-villa-park" title="Read the latest Villa transfer rumours and news!"] It's exactly why both Smith and the club's fans will be absolutely buzzing that Villa seem to have everything in order to make a real splash in the transfer market this summer. Meanwhile, Villa are facing a major transfer battle over this star...