Thursday's Aston Villa Press Transfer Talk

According to the press today West Ham are looking at a fire sale of their top players as the credit crunch hits their Icelandic owners - who are apparently looking to sell the club as soon as possible.

Why does this matter to Villa? Well, the press have gone further and said that striker Dean Ashton is on the list of players who will be sold in the January transfer window and Villa, along with Spurs, could be in the hat to buy him having shown interest before.

The spoke in the wheel for the 24-year-old player, who has undoubted ability, is his woeful injury record. This season again he has proved to be a problem injury wise having been out since September with an ankle injury (picked up in the first training session with new manager Gianfranco Zola) which required surgery. The striker is due to return in the New Year.

Other players apparently on the offload list shouldn't be of any interest to Villa I'm sure but according to the Daily Mail include include, Nigel Quashie, Lee Bowyer, Luis Boa Morte, Calum Davenport, Danny Gabbidon and Jonathan Spector.

In other transfer news, the press are still full of Emile Heskey to Villa links. There seems to be a disagreement between manager Steve Bruce and owner Dave Wheelan. The owner has suggested he would be prepared to offload the player in January rather than let him leave for nothing in the summer. Meanwhile Mr Potato head said: 'We could maybe get £3m-£4m for him in January, but what would be the point of that when we’re chasing £30m at the end of the season?'

Martin O'Neill said about the transfer possibilities, 'We will be looking to do something in January in terms of bringing someone in and that is what happens when players run into the last six months of their contract.' And on Heskey and Wigan: 'They decide what is going to happen. I am sure that Emile Heskey will not be short of offers.' Manchester City, Liverpool and Newcastle have also been linked.

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