Aston Villa have reportedly had an improved offer for Southampton defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis rejected as our pursuit continues.
Signing a centre-half has become a priority in the final stages of the summer transfer window, following on from Ezri Konsa completing a move to Arsenal last week.
While Victor Lindelof will provide temporary cover alongside Pau Torres in the heart of our defence, it’s clear that we need to fill that void, and preferably with a long-term solution.
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According to The Athletic, having already been knocked back by Southampton, Villa have had an improved offer for Harwood-Bellis rejected by the Saints, with the latest bid surpassing the initial offer of £18m plus add-ons.
It remains to be seen if Villa return with another proposal or not, as it’s added in the report that the England international is one of three transfer targets on our shortlist to address the problem, with Villa said to have also made an approach to sign Club Brugge centre-half Joel Ordonez this past weekend.
If an agreement can’t be reached on Harwood-Bellis, Villa may well choose to focus their attention on Ordonez as the two transfer fees required in either deal perhaps edge closer to matching.
What is absolutely certain as Sunday’s heavy defeat to Brighton showed, is that Villa must bring in a new defender before the transfer deadline, as we have to shore things up defensively and continue to rebuild the squad after some notable exits.
Matteo Ruggeri and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have been signed to add competition and depth in the full-back positions while Zion Suzuki is set to emerge as our first-choice goalkeeper this season, and while Pau may remain the one constant, he will surely have a new centre-half partnership to work on in the coming weeks and months once Villa have signed our preferred target.
With a week now until our next game and with the transfer deadline fast approaching, it’s hoped that we can get a signing over the line sooner rather than later, giving them as much time as possible to get settled and adapt to our way of playing.
