Aston Villa are reportedly interested in signing Lyon forward Moussa Dembele this summer, but a move in the January transfer window isn’t excluded.
As per The Telegraph’s Mike McGrath, Danny Ings is set to complete a £15m move to West Ham this week, and so that leaves Villa boss Unai Emery light on options up front.
READ MORE: Why £15m exit is right call from Villa despite short-term concern
Ollie Watkins will no doubt continue to lead the line for the Spanish tactician, while the club announced earlier this week that we’ve agreed a deal to sign Chicago Fire forward Jhon Duran.
While the 19-year-old Colombian international is a top prospect and will hopefully have a big future ahead of him in a Villa shirt, it could be argued that we need to bolster our options in the short term too as he may take time to settle and acclimatise to life in England and the Premier League.
According to Footmercato, Dembele has now emerged as a potential solution.
It’s reported that Villa would ideally like to sign Dembele on a free transfer when his current contract with Lyon expires in the summer, but with Ings now set to move on, a swoop this month hasn’t been ruled out.
Further, it’s suggested that Emery wanted the French forward while he was in charge of Paris Saint-Germain and Villarreal, and so time will tell if it’s third time lucky for the now Villa boss, as he’s a player he has seemingly admired for some time.
Dembele, 26, has enjoyed an impressive spell with Lyon, having scored 69 goals and provided 19 assists in 159 appearances.
Prior to that, he scored 51 goals in 94 games for Celtic, and 19 in 64 for Fulham.
With 13 goals in 25 caps at U21 level for France, there is a clear trend that has developed throughout his career, and his goals, general threat in the final third and the characteristics that he brings to overall play has seemingly now gained Villa’s interest with Emery looking to stamp his mark on the squad.
The feeling behind the decision to sell Ings is that he ultimately doesn’t suit Emery’s style of play and ideas for Villa. The interest in Dembele would suggest that the Frenchman does, and so it remains to be seen if an agreement can be reached to sign him this month, or if we will wait until the summer to try and land him on a free.