Villa set to batle Sunderland for Frenchman

Here at the Football Transfer Tavern we love nothing more than two clubs fighting it out to land a player and French international Moussa Sissoko looks set to be the latest according to the Daily Mirror.

The player is a target for Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert who feels that he could fill the void left by Stilyan Petrov who remains sidelined after being diagnosed with acute leukaemia. However in another blow of a different kind for Lambert, Sunderland are also after the player.

Sissoko would be available on a free in the summer but could be persuaded to move now for around £3 million. The player has earned five caps for Les Bleus and has a stellar reputation. Whether he wants to join a club scrapping in the lower reaches of the Premier League remains to be seen however. Should Villa succumb to the drop, it would be almost impossible for them to land him in the summer.

Lambert had previously ruled out so-called ‘panic buying’ this window and continues to stick with the youth he currently has at his disposal such as Ashley Westwood, Matt Lowton, Joe Bennett and Andreas Weimann who have been mainstays in the squad this term. Villa have shipped 42 goals this term and a holding midfielder like the Frenchman would be a god send for the under-fire Lambert.

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