Aston Villa are already putting their newly established link to Portuguese side Vitoria to use, with a deal for defender Ibrahima Bamba already being worked on.
That’s according to Record, who say Unai Emery’s side are ‘willing to take’ the 20-year-old to Villa Park this summer.
The newspaper reports that negotiations over the defender have ‘already been opened’ and have been assisted by the resumption of the process of the sale of the club’s shares to Villa’s owners.
They announced this week that they were entering into an agreement to buy a 46% share in the Portuguese club, and it seems those talks have already led to transfer negotiations between the two sides.
According to Record’s information, the overall deal for the player will be around €12m, but that does involved the funds involved in the sale of the club’s shares as well.
Bamba is actually valued at around €3.5m by Transfermarkt but the reality is that these values are ‘often exceeded by reality’.
That is certainly the case for a player who ‘a lot of room for progression’ and a potential future in the Italian national team.
His future is now being ‘worked out’ by Aston Villa and Vitoria, although his agreement will also be required if the deal is to be concluded.
At this moment in time Bamba has ‘not yet been informed’ of the talks with Aston Villa but did express his disappointment at the club’s failure to secure a move for him in January.
That was overcome by him becoming a regular in the Portuguese sides over the last month but is seen as a sign that he would be keen on the switch to Aston Villa if it is finalised at any point.
