Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has provided an update on the club’s potential to sign a new goalkeeper in January, with links to Burnley stopper Joe Hart emerging.
Villans stalwart Tom Heaton picked up a knee injury on New Year’s Day at Turf Moor and is expected to be ruled out for a lengthy period.
Villa are also without goalkeeper Jed Steer, who is also not expected to return for at least another couple of months.
Villa Park manager Smith handed a start to Orjan Nyland against Fulham in the FA Cup on Saturday and also has Lovre Kalinic to call upon.
Smith however is seemingly keen to bring in reinforcements in the January transfer window, but refused to name any potential targets.
“There’s an awful lot of candidates, I’m not going to give you any names but a lot of candidates we’ve been looking at and also the two we’ve got here – Kalinic and Nyland who played today,” the Birmingham Mail quote him as saying.
“Nyland has been very good to me, they’re both international goalkeepers so there’s opportunities for them.”
Burnley manager Sean Dyche on the other hand said that there are no expected departures unless a mutually beneficially deal is agreed.
Heaton has been one of Villa’s best performers this season and finding a steady and dependable deputy for the rest of the campaign will be critical to the Midlands outfit’s chances of Premier League survival.
Both Kalinic and Nyland arrived at Villa Park with good reputations but neither has impressed when given the chance to play in the Championship.
Villa are sitting in 17th place in the Premier League standings and face a battle to maintain their top-flight status this term.
