Friday's Aston Villa Transfer Rumours

Apart from the daily Barry rumours, there aren't that many knocking about at the moment, however this is a summary of what is being said!

Curtis Davies says he is confident Martin O'Neill will get the right men in,

'I know a lot of people expected us to spend big in January but the gaffer is very shrewd about his signings and doesn't make signings for the sake of it. He tries to think about it and spend his money wisely so hopefully this summer he has the players he is thinking of and we can get them on board and kick on next season.'

Wilfred Bouma has also spoken, this time from the Euro's where he is involved with Holland, on his excitement of new arrivals at Villa Park. The left-back told the official site:

'The Premier League is a hard league and we have done particularly well with the small squad we have got. Hopefully we can get some more bodies in this summer. We have been very lucky with injuries. If you have a small squad with a lot of injuries then you risk breaking up what we are trying to achieve. Touch wood, we can do that. As for how many, only the manager can decide.'

So who is being linked?

According to the Mirror, Villa are after 28-year-old Brazilian midfielder Paulo Assuncao who apparently has bought out the final year of his contract at Porto.

James Milner, according to the Express & Star, could be heading to Villa Park despite interest from Liverpool - take note Mr Barry! - The 22-year-old winger, on loan at Villa a few seasons back, is apparently subject to a £7million battle between the clubs. The paper say 'sources close to the player' say he is torn. One thing in our favour, not being cash strapped, is we can offer Kevin Keegan straight cash, not cast off make-weight players.

The Times say we are hoping to sign £2million rated Sheffield Wednesday defender Frank Simek.

The Daily Mail the other day claimed that Villa were still looking at 26-year-old Sampdoria player Christian Maggio despite interest from AC Milan. They claim Villa have lodged an £8million bid with Milan willing to bid £10m. However, according to Setanta, it looks like he has signed for Napoli.

One in the Mirror that I can't believe is that Martin O'Neill is interested in Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun but will only do a deal separate to the Gareth Barry saga.

Rumours rumble on that 29-year-old Pascal Chimbonda would be interested in moving to Villa and that Spurs would let the right-back leave for around £2million. Spurs board are a canny lot who usually make a profit on their transfers, so I'm not convinced by that! His agent Willie McKay said: 'I expect Pascal to leave Tottenham. I am speaking to several clubs.'

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