Aston Villa have reportedly submitted an offer for Elfsborg goalkeeper Hákon Rafn Valdimarsson, believed to be worth in excess of €2m.
The 22-year-old joined the Swedish outfit in 2021 after coming through the youth ranks at Grotta in his native Iceland, and he has since gone on to make 49 appearances for the club.
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Further, he has five caps for Iceland to his name already, and it appears as though his form for club and country has attracted the attention of Villa’s scouting department.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Villa have made an offer in excess of €2m for Valdimarsson, but we face competition from FC Copenhagen who have also submitted a bid, which is said to be less than ours.
In turn, time will tell if our proposal convinces the talented young goalkeeper to accept a switch to England, as it appears as though we could see a reshuffle in that department moving forward.
Emiliano Martinez undoubtedly remains our first-choice option between the posts, but with Robin Olsen’s injury troubles this season and the unreliability that comes with that, perhaps that has contributed to the Villa hierarchy considering a change in our cover behind the Argentine.
Filip Marschall is the next available option with Viljami Sinisalo currently out on loan, and so it remains to be seen if the potential signing of Valdimarsson is with a view of ultimately replacing Olsen, who turned 34 this month, or if it’s to add a more experienced and established option as our third-choice shot-stopper in the squad.
Coupled with speculation linking us with the likes of Kosta Nedeljkovic and Morgan Rogers this week, it appears as though Villa have a clear strategy and focus on targeting younger players to improve our squad, perhaps with FFP reasons coming into play given Unai Emery’s comments last week.
Villa will no doubt have earmarked a budget that’s available for the January transfer window, and if the scouting department, Monchi and Emery all believe that they have identified young players capable of helping us take the next step both in the short-term and long-term future, there could be some intriguing new signings drafted in over the next two weeks.
