Aston Villa are said to be interested in signing Mandela Keita from Royal Antwerp as they look to add midfield reinforcements to the squad.
This week has been a busy one for Aston Villa which has seen rumours of plenty of incomings and outgoing movement.
Until this, the window had been quiet as Unai Emery had only seen one signing be confirmed. Kosta Nedeljkovic signed from Red Star Belgrade and has since been loaned back.
Now it appears that Florian Neuhaus may be making a move to Villa Park to add to the midfield conversation.
This is being done to combat the loan move away for Leander Dendoncker who is set to join Napoli this week.
Now there have been links suggesting that Villa could make a move for a young midfielder to combat the loss of the Belgian.
Villa scouting Mandela Keita for summer move
It is safe to say that the sale of Dendoncker either in January or in the summer would leave the Villans light in midfield. This would mean that other than Boubacar Kamara, there is no defensive midfield option reinforcement.
A report by HLN has now suggested that Villa have their eyes on Mandela Keita as they look to add some squad depth.
On that, they said: “Things are moving around Mandela Keita, another talented midfielder from Antwerp. Despite rumours that Aston Villa is pushing for Keita, there is extensive interest, especially from France. Antwerp is reportedly aiming for around 20 million euros for its international.”
There is plenty of hype surrounding the youngster and he would represent an exciting signing for the Villans to add some depth. Given the general lack of depth that Emery has in midfield right now, this could be a useful signing.
However, it must be said that Villa are in need of some squad depth now and a move for Keita can’t be done yet.
For that reason, they said: “One thing is already certain: Keita will play out the season in Belgium anyway since he already played for both OHL and Antwerp this year and you are not allowed to play for three clubs.”
With that, there is no point in Villa signing him yet unless they think they’ll be able to get a cheaper deal than in the summer.
This is what has been done in a similar fashion with Nedeljkovic who signed but was immediately loaned back. A similar thing could be done with Keita and benefit Villa in the future.
With Monchi in charge, this appears to be the sort of signing the Villans are making and feels like a likely move.
