Aston Villa Medical?
The Bournemouth Daily Echo are reporting that Bournemouth centre-back Tommy Elphick has cut short honeymoon for a medical with Aston Villa. While it sounds a little drastic that he’s cutting short his romantic trip to Italy – I’m sure his wife is chuffed – it looks like Roberto Di Matteo could seal his first deal as Villa boss next week.
The fee for the 28-year-old Cherries defender is reported to be around the £3 million mark and for a three-year deal.
While there had been concerns over his fitness after the player only played 12 league games last season, he was ever present when the Cherries won the Championship in the 2014-15 season.
Leeds United’s manager Gary Monk was thought to have been seriously interested in Elphick too, but it looks like Villa have won the race for the spirited and battling centre-back.
Having been the Bournemouth captain, Elphick has the leadership fibre that Villa have been in short supply of in recent seasons, and it looks like he will be the start of a trend of Di Matteo introducing more blue collar type players to the Villa squad.
With Di Matteo and his managerial team now deep in researching their recruitment drive for the Championship, transfer activity should start to pick-up considerably in the next few weeks despite the Euro 2016 being on in France.
UTV
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