Nev a master blaster too
Mings & El Ghazi will cost £22m but top scorer Abraham went back to Chelsea
ASTON VILLA’S Premier League transfer ‘cabinet’ will meet next week, with Tyrone Mings the first item on the agenda.
Manager Dean Smith is keen to snap up the 26-year-old Bournemouth defender, who was a big success after joining on loan in January.
The Cherries are willing to sell but will be looking for about £15million.
Mings is also desperate to join Villa having helped guide them to promotion with an unstoppable endof-season run.
Villa’s players and staff are on a break following the 2-1 Wembley playoff win over Derby, with the exception of chief executive Christian Purslow, who has been at his desk preparing a battle plan for the summer.
He will sit down with Smith (left) and sporting director Jesus Pitarch early next week with a concerted bid to wrap up a deal for Mings the No.1 priority.
Purslow has expressed his concern at a policy which sees a significant number of Villa’s promotion-winning players already back with parent clubs after loan spells.
They will try to get Mings along with Lille’s Anwar El Ghazi, who will cost around £7m, but know they have said farewell to two others.
Leading scorer Tammy Abraham has returned to Chelsea and is likely to feature in their plans with the Blues operating under a transfer ban.
Abraham’s 26 goals made him a firm crowd favourite but there appears to be little or no chance of him going back to Villa.
Defender Axel Tuanzebe made 30 appearances for Villa last term but the 21-year-old has almost certainly played his last game for them, with Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer expected to want him in his squad.
With Glenn Whelan, Tommy Elphick and Alan Hutton all out of contract and unlikely to be retained, Villa are in for a busy summer. HE learnt from the master and – as England captain Steph Houghton can testify – Phil Neville’s hairdryer can also be set to full blast.
The Lionesses coach spent 12 seasons at Old Trafford getting ticking-offs from Sir Alex Ferguson.
Judging by Manchester City’s centre-half (right), it has not been lost on Neville.
Ahead of the World Cup next week, she said: “He’s someone I can speak to – but he’s not afraid to tell me off either. I got an absolute b ****** ing at half-time in the match against Brazil in the SheBelieves Cup.” ONE leading football agent is facing a major criminal investigation from HMRC over a transfer involving three major clubs.
The taxman is coming down hard on football agents and has already sent letters to nearly 2,000 of them warning they may face tax investigations after “serious allegations of fraud”.
HMRC are currently pouring over dozens of cases involving more than 40 clubs and more than 100 players.
They have launched one deep probe into one deal involving a highprofile agent, a Premier League player and two of his moves which have involved his father. The
BIRMINGHAM’S chief executive Xuandong Ren has gone against the advice of senior staff – led by manager Garry Monk – and taken an office at the club’s training ground. Ren had previously been based at St Andrew’s and it is rare in English football for senior executives to be at the training ground, where the facilities are normally sacrosanct for the players and coaching staff.
Chinese businessman Ren – a key member of Birmingham’s board and trusted lieutenant of the ownership – is credited with hiring and firing Harry Redknapp, as well as being active and outspoken on social media.
TOTTENHAM blew everyone away with their new state-of-the-art £1billion stadium.
But their training ground is also something to behold and an impressive place to go to every day.
Even the hotel-style rooms the squad stay in the night before games feature incredible five-star luxury which one player said is “good enough to take his missus on holiday”.
The best feature? Room sensors which pick up when you need the toilet in the middle of the night and automatically turn the lights on to guide you to the bathroom.
FORMER Arsenal trainee Nico Yennaris has become the first foreignborn player to be called up by China.
Yennaris, 26, now known as Li Ke since his move to Beijing Guoan, will join up with Italian World Cup winner Marcello Lippi’s China squad for upcoming friendlies against Philippines and Tajikistan. HMRC have declined to comment but it is understood they are looking at agent commissions paid on the deals, whether the father was paid directly into his own bank account – against strict FA rules – and deals between agents involved.
One club has also received a letter from an agent involved in the deal threatening legal action, which has infuriated the hierarchy at the club, who insist they have done nothing wrong.
It could lead to a criminal prosecution against all of those concerned as both HMRC and the FA look to take a strong public stand on the issue of tax.
LEICESTER have slapped an incredible £60million price tag on England prospect James Maddison.
They are determined not to sell midfielder Maddison, 22, and the sky-high asking price is calculated to scare off potential suitors – with Tottenham among the interested clubs.