Aston Villa offer James Tarkowski £120,000 per week to seal free transfer – report
Aston Villa have offered James Tarkowski £120,000 per week to beat off competition from Everton and Fulham and seal another free transfer signing.
The Burnley defender is out of contract at Turf Moor next month and will leave the club after seven years following their relegation from the Premier League.
That has seen several clubs interested in bringing him in, and Steven Gerrard has now made the play to double his wages and blow the other interested parties out of the water with a mega-money offer, according to the Daily Mail.
The lack of transfer fee involved means the club are willing to go higher with their wage offer and have already shown their intent after confirming the signing of Boubacar Kamara from Marseille on a free transfer.
The report claims that Villa are also in the market for another midfielder and a forward this summer, as Gerrard looks to bolster his squad to improve on their 14th place finish last season.
Mega bucks
Tarkowski is seen as an ideal target to strengthen the Villa defence after a season in which Gerrard tried his best to focus on toughening them up.
Tyrone Mings has struggled for form this season and has even lost his place in the England squad to Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori in the most recent squad for Gareth Southgate.
Tarkowski has regularly been seen as a defender that could step up from Burnley to a club competing for a European place, but the price tag always got put way above interested club’s reaches and he was priced out of a move.
Now with no transfer fee though the club are able to make their move, and with Ezri Konsa out with a knee injury for several months the transfer has become more of a priority now.
Big wages will go a long way to convincing him to make the move to the Midlands and Gerrard could be set to get his second signing over the line quickly.
In other Aston Villa news, View: Aston Villa must resist bids for John McGinn if they’re serious about Europe