Aston Villa are understood to be in regular talks with an Italian club who are interested in landing one of their key players.
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After a poor run that saw them win just once in nine games across all competitions, Aston Villa now seem to have rediscovered their best form. Unai Emery’s side have won four of their last five games in all competitions, most recently beating struggling Manchester City in the Premier League at the weekend.
Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers were both on the scoresheet in an impressive 2-1 victory, which manager Emery described as a “great day” at the office.
“Manchester City are a very difficult team and I think we played fantastic,” said the Spanish coach. “Every player, in the tactical structure, was fantastic, defensively and offensively. Their commitment to do everything we worked on before the match was very important.I think every player performed great. It was a really great day for the team and for individual players as well.”
Rogers, who was voted as the Man of the Match, said: “To a man, I thought we were outstanding, so I thought we deserved the win.”
Napoli readying new and improved Duran bid
Duran, Villa’s other scorer against City, has been the subject of intense interest from clubs all around Europe thanks to his scintillating displays this season. The Colombia international, who is rated at £80 million by Villa, has scored 12 goals in all competitions, including three in the Champions League – one of which was the only goal in Villa’s historic 1-0 victory over Bayern Munich.
FC Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United are all understood to be keen on the former MLS hitman. However, it seems as if it’s Napoli who might be winning the race for his signature. According to Il Mattino, as per Sports Witness, the Italian club have already made a £29 million offer for Duran, which was rejected.
The publication states that Napoli, however, aren’t prepared to stop and have sent across “signals” to Villa that a second offer of £33 million will be made soon. Napoli are having constant and “frenetic” phone calls with NSWE about the 21-year-old, who they see as a potential replacement for Victor Osimhen. They are yet to get anywhere close to Villa’s price tag however.
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Osimhen came close to joining Chelsea in the summer, but the proposed deal collapsed on deadline day, and he ended up joining Turkish side Galatasaray on-loan instead. Though he’s not expected to stay in Turkey beyond the end of the season, he is widely expected to leave Napoli, with Chelsea reportedly maintaining their interest in signing him.
Ex-Chelsea midfielder and Nigeria international John Obi-Mikel said in the summer that Osimhen “wanted” to move to Stamford Bridge.
“Both sides really played their part in terms of getting the deal done, and I commend Chelsea for that, because I can see their ambition of where they want to take this club now, and also on Victor’s side, how much he really wanted to come to the club.”