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Opinion: Aston Villa won’t sign £20m man in January, Dean Smith is out of time

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Aston Villa were heavily linked with a move for Neal Maupay in January, with Dean Smith looking to use his Brentford connections to sign a stellar centre-forward. Weeks have passed since those reports, however, and Villa don’t appear any close to landing his signature. With only days remaining of the transfer window, Smith may have run out of time to sign the £20m striker.

Villa are in the market for another attacker as Tammy Abraham will return to parent club Chelsea at the end of the season. Scott Hogan have suffered from poor form and a lack of playing time in the last 18 months, so he is expendable and may not be at the Midlands club past the summer. Jonathan Kodjia also has an uncertain future after losing his starting place.

Maupay would have been an excellent addition to the Villa squad, but the 22-year-old wouldn’t be an easy acquisition. Brentford have no desire to let him leave given his fine form this season (26 Championship games, 16 goals), nor would they part with such a key player without the necessary time to replace him.

The January transfer window closes in five days which gives the Bees little chance of procuring the signature of a worth Maupay replacement. Villa may have to wait until the summer to sign the striker.

Read Crippy Cooke’s previous article

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.