Villa splash £30m on Bailey ... is Grealish off?
ASTON VILLA have won the race to sign Bayer Leverkusen star Leon Bailey, as the club prepares a hasty rebuild ahead of the pending £100m sale of Jack Grealish.
Villa and German club Leverkusen have agreed a deal worth around £30million.
The Jamaica international is heading to Birmingham to finalise personal terms and undergo a medical.
Bailey, who enjoyed four-anda-half seasons at Leverkusen, had been on the radar of a number of Premier League clubs including Liverpool.
The 23-year-old winger has just enjoyed his best-ever Bundesliga season with nine goals and nine assists, but Leverkusen were willing to sell this summer after their failure to qualify for the Champions League.
Bailey had last week revealed in a TV interview that he was ready to sever his relationship with the Bundesliga club.
‘ One hundred per cent I’m totally ready for the next step,’ he said. ‘I feel like I’m at a point in my life where I’m ready.’
Bailey’s imminent arrival follows the news that Villa have recieved a record- breaking transfer bid from Manchester City for England star Grealish.
Villa are yet to formally respond to City’s offer but it is understood they are willing to allow their captain to leave.
It would be for the biggest transfer fee in British history, eclipsing the £89m Manchester United paid Juventus for Paul
Pogba five years ago. Villa boss Dean Smith had already captured Emi Buendia from Norwich for a club-record £33m but will be under enormous pressure to bring in more new faces given the hole Grealish leaves behind.
It is believed Villa have had a £ 25m bid for Southampton’s James Ward- Prowse turned down but armed with more cash they will likely up their offer.
They also want Norwich’s Todd Cantwell — it’s claimed the club are in ‘talks’ about a £20m deal.
Bailey, who was named in the Bundesliga Team of the Season for 2017- 18, has been targeted to bring an injection of pace to Villa’ s attack. Since the start of the 2016-17 season, the wideman has played 119 games, scored 28 goals, supplied 18 assists and created 178 chances.
Villa’s head of recruitment Robert Mackenzie will have helped engineer t he move having been on the Tottenham staff in 2015 when they snared Son Heung-min.
Grealish was a notable absentee as Villa won 3-0 in a preseason friendly at Bristol City yesterday. Teenager Jaden Philogene-Bidace opened the scoring by tapping home Ollie Watkins’ cross.
A goalkeeping error by Dan Bentley produced Villa’s second goal when he spilled John McGinn’s free kick and Ezri Konsa prodded home.
Watkins headed Villa’s third after an hour following a fine cross from Anwar El Ghazi.
■ SWANSEA have angered MK Dons by making an approach for manager Russell Martin.
The Swans are on the hunt for a new boss since the departure of Steve Cooper earlier this month ahead of the start to the Championship season this weekend.
MK Dons lost to Bournemouth in the EFL Cup yesterday and released a statement that read: ‘To our extreme disappointment, this was received less than 24 hours prior to our first competitive fixture of the season.’