Shrewsbury Town confirm latest summer signing

The 19-year-old joined Villa from Fleetwood Town back in the summer of 2021 before signing his first professional deal a year later.

He is the third loan signing of the summer so far, and the second from Villa, with Tommi O'Reilly already making a big impression in Shropshire.

Salop have strong links with Villa due to the relationship between head coach Paul Hurst and Villa's head of emerging talent Adam Henshall - former head of recruitment at Town.

And Hurst was pleased to get the deal over the line.

"This deal has been in the pipeline for a couple of weeks," the Shrews boss said.

"His parent club wanted to take Josh on their pre-season tour so we had to be a little patient and wait for him to come in.

"He is a player that I’ve discussed with Adam Henshall over at Villa for the past 18 months in terms of his qualities.

"And me coming back to Shrewsbury – and being in League One - has given us the opportunity to bring him in.

"He is highly rated, comfortable on the ball and has represented England at under-16, 17 and 18 level.

"We are looking forward to working with him and getting him into the team over the next few weeks."

Feeney’s only taste of competitive senior action came during a spell with Real Union, where he made eight appearances earlier this year – O’Reilly was also there during that time.

Feeney was an unused substitute in their 1-0 defeat to Club America in Chicago at the weekend.

But he has had some minutes in pre-season as he played the first half of Villa’s pre-season clash against Walsall a few weeks back, a game they went on to win 3-0.

He lined up alongside Matty Cash and Pau Torres, who are both experienced Premier League defenders.

Town kick off their League One campaign this weekend against Stevenage.