Lewis Dobbin forcing Aston Villa into difficult summer decision – here’s why
Aston Villa have a number of young players out on loan this season, and Lewis Dobbin is one of them.
Having developed through Everton’s academy system and making 20 first-team appearances for the Toffees, Dobbin signed for Aston Villa in the summer of 2024.
The versatile forward has spent his first two seasons as a Villa player out on loan, however, with West Brom and Norwich sampling his talents last term, before heading out to Preston for the 2025-26 campaign respectively.
His first two spells with Albion and the Canaries were fairly quiet though, as he failed to provide a single goal contribution in 18 games at The Hawthorns, before scoring twice in 11 at Carrow Road respectively.
But, something appears to have clicked for Dobbin this season, and Preston have been the big beneficiaries of that, setting up a fascinating decision for Villa Park chiefs to make this summer.
Lewis Dobbin has been excellent for Preston
Having yet to make a competitive appearance for Aston Villa, and off the back of two underwhelming loan spells, there was much talk of Dobbin being moved on from in this season’s summer window already.
Villa opted to hand him another crack at Championship football with Preston this season, in the hope that it might be third time lucky for the ex-England youth international.
Well, it looks as though their luck was in, as Dobbin has been in flying form for the Lilywhites in 2025-26, establishing himself as one of their key players.
Seven goals and five assists from 27 league outings paint a picture of Dobbin being an essential attacking cog in Paul Heckingbottom’s side, made even more impressive considering he’s only averaging just over an hour on the pitch per game.
As per Sofascore, he’s registering a passing accuracy of 77 per cent, which is a very solid figure indeed for a striker, and he’s shown the ability to score in a myriad of ways, with three on either foot and one with his head.
Indeed, centre-forward is where he’s been routinely deployed at Deepdale this season, but he’s also capable of operating as a number 10 and out wide.
Unai Emery should give Dobbin pre-season chance
Aston Villa could be set for a significant overhaul to their forward line this summer, with a host of players either not featuring or seemingly out of favour with Unai Emery.
Ollie Watkins hasn’t been his usual goalscoring self this season, Jadon Sancho hasn’t reignited his stagnating career in the West Midlands, and Leon Bailey looks a prime candidate to be sold at the end of the campaign.
Therefore, Emery may well have a number of vacancies to be filled in his attack department for next term, and at 23, it’s perhaps now or never for Dobbin as a Villa player.
So, upon his return from a hugely fruitful loan with Preston, Emery should at the very least give him the chance to stake his first-team claim in pre-season.
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