Transfer deal between Aston Villa and Fulham in doubt

According to David Ornstein Fulham have submitted an improved offer to sign Crystal Palace centre-back Joachim Andersen. This comes a couple of days after Fabrizio Romano had reported that negotiations between Aston Villa and Fulham regarding Villa centre-half Diego Carlos were at an advanced stage.

Aston Villa rejected Fulham's opening bid for Carlos and since the news broke that a deal was getting closer to being completed, the talks have gone quiet and Fulham seem to now be making a bigger move for Andersen.

Should the sale of Carlos to Fulham fall through it would come as a bitter blow for Aston Villa as it is understood that in order to recruit new players they are going to have to sell first, on a one-in-one-out basis. Villa have been heavily linked with signing Feyenoord defender Lutsharel Geertruida and that is a deal Emery wants go get done. However, should Villa be unable to sell their Brazilian defender than a deal for the Dutch international may not be possible.

Aston Villa have previously seen the transfer sale of Jhon Duran fall through as a result of not lowering their asking price for the forward. West Ham United were close to a deal but Villa wouldn't lower their £40 million valuation for the Colombian international and the Hammers walked away from the deal having had a bid of £35 million turned down. Now, Villa could once again have blown an opportunity to sell a player that they would like to see out the exit door.

Villa fans have grown concerned over the lack of transfer business in recent weeks despite a plethora of early signings being made back in June and July. Having signed Ian Maatsen, Amadou Onana, Ross Barkley, Jaden Philogene, Enzo Barrenechea, Samuel Iling-Junior and Lewis Dobbin (who has since left on loan) it looked promising that more high-profile signings were on their way. However, the bigger names and higher calibre of player to replace the likes of Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby have not yet arrived.

The chances of a deal to sign Atletico Madrid forward Joao Felix looks all but over after many weeks of rumours that Unai Emery was close to convincing the Portuguese to move to Villa Park. Latest developments suggest that Felix is going to return to Chelsea to play in the Europa Conference League rather than play Champions League football with Aston Villa. Well, his loss! However, fans once again have expressed frustration at the thought that this was a missed opportunity.

Villa's first game of the new Premier League season is this Saturday away at West Ham United. The match is a 17:30 kick off and being shown live on Sky Sports. Villa fans will be hopeful that the team that did so well last season will be able to get the club off to a good start this season before new signings are likely to come through the door by the end of the month.

UTV