As you might have seen in the past, Aston Villa are tracking a promising player in Argentina called Julián Álvarez.
The 21-year-old has caught the attention of a lot of clubs in Europe with his performances for River Plate, where he has scored 10 goals in 12 league games for the club so far.
Aston Villa have been linked for a while now, but it appears that some of the competition, notably in Italy, are making the first moves to sign Álvarez.
Milan are the ones, with Calciomercato explaining, via Argentine sources, that the Serie A club had sent scouts to watch the player in the River Plate-San Lorenzo clash, where he scored a hat-trick.
They then look at it themselves, claiming many clubs ‘have activated themselves’ on the player, including Aston Villa.
Either way, what appears certain is that Álvarez ‘will soon leave River Plate to make the leap in Europe he has longed for since he was a child’.
He has a release clause of $25m, although a previous report we covered suggested he would be willing to renew his contract with his current side to ensure they get more money from a sale.
This means any move for the above amount would need to happen sooner rather than later before he puts pen to paper on a new deal.
Therefore, Aston Villa would have to act fast for two reasons: first, to avoid the likes of Milan and Inter swooping in first, and second, to make sure they don’t have to pay more than $25m.
