Ex-Aston Villa Scout drops ‘sensible money’ verdict amid verbal agreement for Serie A ace
Villa News is delighted to welcome aboard our brilliant new columnist Bryan King, the former goalkeeper who spent over 10 years as a scout at Aston Villa and 28 years in total in first-team scouting roles. Bryan also spent six years on Tottenham’s recruitment team and eight years scouting at Everton…
Aston Villa would be spending “sensible money” if they can complete a deal for Hellas Verona forward Cyril Ngonge, according to the club’s former scout Bryan King.
It was reported by Tuttomercatoweb (2 January) that Premier League high-flyers Villa have had an £8.7million bid “verbally accepted” by the Serie A club for Ngonge.
The 23-year-old does have interest from elsewhere, according to the Italian outlet, with Fiorentina said to be monitoring the situation of Ngonge who is said to be happy in Italy.
However, with Villa also apparently recouping £2.5m from the sale of Finn Azaz to Middlesbrough PlymouthLive (3 January), King thinks it would represent a decent bit of business for Villa.
“It’s sensible money,” he told Villa News.
“If they just sold one player for £2.5m and they’re gonna bring this one in at £8.5m it makes the deal around £6m without his wages.
“If he’s a Premier League player, and they obviously must think he is, then I would imagine that’s quite a good deal for a player that age, 23-years-old.”
Ngonge has five goals in 17 outings this season and his signature would provide competition for the likes of Leon Bailey and Moussa Diaby in the forward positions.
Villa are on the hunt for January reinforcements amid what has been a fascinating tilt at the title this season.
After 20 games, Emery’s men find themselves second in the table and just three points adrift of leaders Liverpool.
They take a break from league action to host Middlesbrough in the FA Cup third round on Saturday (6 January).
In other Aston Villa news, talks are set to begin with on their most important players.