Aston Villa eyeing move for Besiktas star

According to 'GiveMeSport' Aston Villa are weighing up a move for Albanian international Ernest Muci. The 23-year-old, capped twelve times by his country, is an attacking midfielder who has the capability of playing out wide and in the No.10 position.

Muci came off the bench and scored for Besiktas in last night's 4-2 Turkish Super Lig win over Antalyaspor but having fallen out of favour with manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst it seems his time at the club may be heading towards an early end.

Muci is a name that Villa fans will be familiar with. The young Albanian signed for Besiktas for a fee of €10 million from Legia Warsaw in February this year. Muci was a stand-out performer and scorer of two goals in the Legia Warsaw team that defeated Aston Villa 3-2 during the UEFA Conference League group stage last season. Muci also scored his team's goal in the 2-1 defeat at Villa Park in the reverse fixture.

Muci performed well in his first few months in Turkey and scored three goals in his first nine matches. However, Besiktas's signing of Portuguese international Rafa Silva has meant that Muci has seen his opportunities to play limited and the club are understood to be happy to move him on.

Besiktas are hoping to make back the €10 million they spent on Muci just six months ago and should Villa pursue a deal for the youngster then they will need to pay at least that fee. There are other clubs interested in signing the midfielder but should Villa make a solid move for him they are likely to be in control of negotiations over other clubs.

With it looking increasingly likely that Aston Villa's prime transfer target Joao Felix will be heading to Chelsea rather than Villa, the Villans will need to look elsewhere. The question fans will be asking is, is this player ready to make an impact in a Champions League team? The answer is really unknown but for a small fee and bags of potential it could be an astute deal to pursue.

UTV