Villa have ‘concrete’ interest in re-signing Man Utd star

Aston Villa have reportedly registered there interest in re-signing Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe.

Having offloaded Bjorn Engels to Royal Antwerp, Dean Smith is in the market for a new centre-back this summer.

Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa have established themselves as the first-choice duo for the Villans but Smith is keen to sign someone to provide genuine competition at the back.

READ MORE: The £238m XI already transferred this summer

Tuanzebe was a key figure in Villa’s 2018-19 promotion campaign and it’s thought that may mean he’s open to a return to Villa Park.

The 23-year-old made 19 appearances for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side last term, including an impressive display in the away Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain, but he made just four Premier League starts.

He has to compete with Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly for the centre-back position and with Solskjaer thought to be targeting further reinforcements for United in that area this summer, Tuanzebe could find himself even further down the pecking order.

Football Insider claim Villa have ‘concrete’ interest in Tuanzebe and will make an offer if United are willing to negotiate with them.

Tuanzebe has one year remaining on his contract at United, who also have the option to extend his deal by a further 12 months.

United have been widely linked with a move for Raphael Varane, but they have reportedly had an opening offer of €45million rejected by Sevilla for Jules Kounde.

Duncan Castles told The Transfer Window podcast: “Kounde has been on that list of centre-backs that they want to add to solve the Harry Maguire problem, for some time now. I can tell you that they have contacted Sevilla and held informal talks with them over the purchase of Kounde for this summer.

“And proposed that they would offer €45m as a transfer fee for the player. Sevilla are not happy with that, their sports director Monchi said ‘no, there is no way I can sell this player for €45m.’

“He told Manchester United, I understand, that he had an offer of €55m for the player last summer, therefore €45m was out of the question.

“It looks like the valuation that Monchi will sell at is €65m but there is a bit of a question over that. He has been telling certain agents that it would take €80m to get Kounde in this window.