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Aston Villa: Ashley Preece discusses potential Leon Bailey deal

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Aston Villa journalist Ashley Preece has been sharing some insight regarding the Midlands club’s reported interest in signing Bayer Leverkusen winger Leon Bailey this summer. 

This comes after Preece made an appearance on a recent edition of the Birmingham Mail’s Claret & Blue Podcast, where he spoke about a range of topics concerning the Villans.

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After Bailey’s stepfather recently revealed that there is interest from Premier League clubs to sign Bailey this summer, Preece had this to say on the situation.

He said: “His stepdad’s come out in the press over at Bild in Germany, a really credible newspaper over there, he said ‘yeah, we are in talks with Villa’.

“Leverkusen have a valuation of £30 million, €35 million – Villa are yet to meet that, they’re €5 million off the valuation, so talks are continuing. His stepdad is Bailey’s advisor as well, so it’s clear to see there’s a real interest there.

“Only thing is now I think Wolves and Leicester are accredited with interest as well, so a bit of a tug-of-war as it were, but Villa are in pole position to sign him should they meet that valuation, simple as that.

“I think he’s [the] number-one target now for Villa, that’s a given. They need to meet Leverkusen’s valuation. His quote was it’s all about the money now, so it’s up to whether Villa stump up with it, and should they do that, I think Bailey will be a Villa player but until then, nothing’s going to happen.”

Bailey signed to Leverkusen back in the 2017 January transfer window from Belgian club KRC Genk for a fee of £12.15 million.

Since then, the 23-year-old, who is currently valued at £31.5 million, has made 156 appearances for the German club across all competitions in which he has managed to score 39 goals and provide 26 assists in the process (per Transfermarkt).

TIF Thoughts on Ashley Preece’s comments on Villa’s interest in Bailey…

Taking into account how Bailey managed to score nine goals and provide nine assists in 30 appearances for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga last season, it’s easy to see why the winger has attracted interest from clubs in the Premier League such as Villa.

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In our view, given how Villa already have the likes of Jack Grealish, Anwar El Ghazi, Bertrand Traore, Trezeguet and new signing Emi Buendia in their squad that play on the wings, perhaps the club may not necessarily need to splash another significant amount of money to sign Bailey this summer.

Whether they are preparing for outgoings in that department remains to be seen, but you would imagine there would have to be further changes if Bailey were to join the Villans.

In other news: ‘From what I understand’ – Insider drops Dwight McNeil transfer claim at AVFC

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