Aston Villa ready to make their move for 'outstanding' defender

Following a flurry of signings in the first few days of this summers transfer window, Villa are now looking to add quality to their defence with the signing of one of Euro 2024's star players.

The man in question is Slovenia centre-back Jaka Bijol who last night produced a fantastic performance in Slovenia's agonising penalty shootout defeat against Portugal. His performance led to Alan Shearer describing the Udinese defender as "absolutely outstanding" and Villa are rumoured to be interested in pursuing the 25-year-old now that his nation have been eliminated from the tournament.

Mondo Udinese, the Italian news outlet, are claiming that Udinese are going to demand a fee of £15 million for the former CSKA Moscow star and that is something that is not considered to be an issue for Aston Villa.

For those who watched Slovenia's Round of 16 battle with Portugal you will be able to agree that Bijol was superb in keeping the Portuguese front line of Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Rafael Leao pretty quiet. Despite it never usually being a good idea to base a player's ability off performances at major international tournaments rather than seeing club form over a long period, this may well be an exceptional opportunity to sign a very good player.

Bijol made 24 appearances in Serie A last season, missing out from December to March through injury. Bijol has been one of the standout and most talked about talents in Serie A and it is believed that AS Roma also hold significant interest in the Slovenian.

Bijol still has three years left on his current deal but it is understood that he is interested in a move to further his career following a very successful European Championships.

Having already signed five players this summer, Villa are looking to keep adding further quality to their squad. However, the squad at its current state is pretty full and therefore it is likely that outgoings will need to occur if Villa are to pursue a deal for Bijol and other targets. Matty Cash is still a man being watched by clubs abroad, whilst Diego Carlos, Alex Moreno and Jhon Duran are also highly likely to leave the club this summer.

UTV