An update has emerged regarding Aston Villa's attempts to bolster their attacking ranks in the transfer market...

What's the talk?

According to Foot Mercato, the Villans are eyeing up a swoop to sign French centre-forward Moussa Dembele from Lyon at the end of the campaign.

The report claims that the striker is set to be a free agent in the summer, and this would allow the Midlands club to bypass paying a transfer fee for his services, with fellow Premier League side Everton going through the same thought process.

However, it is stated that a January transfer should not be ruled out completely due to the agreement for the sale of Villa attacker Danny Ings to West Ham United, although it remains to be seen how much Lyon would demand to allow him to leave this month.

Ings replacement

Whether it comes this month or in the summer, Villa manager Unai Emery could land a dream replacement for Ings by swooping to sign Dembele from the Ligue 1 outfit.

The English forward was a reliable goalscoring option for Villa as he found the net 13 times in 30 Premier League starts for the club, including six in eight starts this term.

Ings was a player who the Villans knew they could rely upon when they needed a goal, whether that be from the start or off the bench, and thy must now replace him with a player who offers a similar level of quality in the final third.

Dembele could be that striker for Emery after his superb goalscoring exploits during the 2021/22 campaign for Lyon. The French dynamo, who has scored twice in six league starts this season, plundered a stunning 21 goals in 25 Ligue 1 starts last term.

He has scored 55 goals in 120 appearances in the French top flight throughout his career and managed 25 in 53 outings for Celtic in the Scottish Premiership prior to his move to Lyon.

The £69k-per-week gem, who Brendan Rodgers once hailed as “powerful”, ranks in the top 5% of strikers in Europe's top five leagues for non-penalty goals per 90 over the last 365 days, which shows that he has been one of the most prolific goalscorers on the continent of late.

Therefore, Dembele could be a dream replacement for Ings, as Villa would be replacing the Englishman with a proven finisher who, at 26, still has time on his side to improve even further and could offer more in the long-term than the West Ham-bound 30-year-old.