Aston Villa are in hot pursuit of Bournemouth’s Harry Arter with the midfielder’s loan stay at Cardiff potentially coming to a premature end, according to the Irish Independent.
The newspaper claims that Villa and Watford have both “expressed an interest” in signing the 29-year-old as the Cherries plan to tear up his season-long loan spell in South Wales.
It is understood that a decision on the Republic of Ireland international’s immediate future could be made in the next few days after he missed out on the Cardiff squad that lost 3-0 to Newcastle on Saturday.
Good move for Aston Villa?
Arter would be a very good signing for any Championship club.
The Bournemouth midfielder has a lot of experience in English football, winning promotions from both League One and the Championship with the south coast side.
Villa could do with some of that experience, however their midfield doesn’t need another player of his qualities and Dean Smith is better off spending his transfer budget on bolstering his defence before anything else.
Arter earns £40,000-a-week (Spotrac) and that is a lot to pay for a club that is unlikely to win promotion this season.
This is Futbol rating 6/10
Likely to happen?
The Irish Independent reports that Arter would prefer to join a club nearer to his home in London, which means that Watford would be a better destination for him.
However he would more than likely get more first team football at Villa Park than he would at Vicarage Road, so it is hard to tell which club he would pick if he had the straight choice between the interested parties.
Bournemouth still have to recall the midfielder for Villa’s interest to go further, so it seems like a lot has to happen for this one to have any legs to it.
This is Futbol rating 3/10