Will George Hemmings be a first-team regular for Aston Villa this season?
George Hemmings is primed for a breakthrough 2026-27 season at Aston Villa, if Unai Emery allows it.
Having started his youth career with Nottingham Forest, Hemmings joined Villa in January 2024.
Then just 16, it would only be a matter of months until he signed his first professional contract at Villa Park in April of that same year.
Since then, he's become an FA Youth Cup and English Youth League winner with Villa's Under-18s, and collected a Europa League winners' medal too.
The do-it-all midfielder has now made five competitive first-team appearances in B6, but is yet to score his first senior goal.
However, the evidence is all there in front of Emery to prove why the 19-year-old is ready to properly announce himself with Villa in 2026-27.
Why Unai Emery can mould George Hemmings into Morgan Rogers 2.0
The biggest void Aston Villa will need to fill on the pitch this coming season stems from the departure of Morgan Rogers.
His ball-carrying, playmaking and all-round impact he had at Villa Park is going to make that a very, very difficult task.
It's one that Hemmings likely couldn't fix in his first full season as first-team regular for Villa, but in time, his underlying numbers suggests he can.
As per FotMob, when you compare Hemmings' Premier League 2 (PL2) and Rogers' Premier League numbers from 2025-26, the similarities are striking.
Per 90 minutes, Hemmings created 2.04 chances to Rogers' 1.29 and completed 1.36 successful dribbles to the latter's 1.15.
Hemmings also won more duels per game (5.82 to 4.33), took 56.4 touches to Rogers' 49.5, won 1.36 fouls to the now-Chelsea star's 1.34 and made 31.6 successful passes to his 21.8.
It doesn't stop there either. Hemmings made more tackles (2.33 to 1.15), recoveries (5.24 to 3.81) and was dispossessed 1.07 times to Rogers' 2.19.
Indeed, Hemmings' seven big chances created and 14 successful dribbles ranked him in the top 1.8 and 6.5 percentile of his PL2 positional rivals last term.
Now of course, there is a big difference in standard between PL2 and the Premier League, but the Rogers 2.0 blueprint is there with Hemmings.
Emery, with the elite tactical vision he possesses, will see that too, and can accelerate this construction project if he's handed a first-team place this term.
It's not Hemmings' potential that should earn him a senior spot in 2026-27; he's proven he can do it against top opposition this summer.
How Hemmings sent PSG and Bayern Munich messages
Villa's pre-season campaign wasn't spent playing against considerably weaker opposition simply for fitness purposes.
Rather, Emery's side took on a number of European heavyweights, and Hemmings saw action against them all.
As an indication of the belief Emery has in him, the teenager played the full 90 minutes against Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Super Cup final.
Per FotMob, he completed 20 of his 25 pass attempts successfully, created one chance, put one shot on target and played three passes into the final third in that game.
He also took six touches in the PSG box, was accurate with his lone long ball attempt, made seven recoveries, won two fouls and three ground duels.
This wasn't against a rotated PSG side either: Vitinha, Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves and Warren Zaire-Emery etc all started.
He also found the net with a lovely finish against Real Sociedad, and played across the midfield and even out wide during pre-season too.
This isn't even factoring in the fact Emery is already dealing with a host of midfield injuries to Joao Gomes, Johan Manzambi and Amadou Onana too.
In summary, Hemmings' versatility, top displays against elite opposition and his Rogers successor potential means Emery must have a first-team role for him in 2026-27.