Aston Villa submitted an offer for Brighton midfielder Yves Bissouma and were then joined in the running by Antonio Conte's Tottenham, it has been revealed.

What's the word?

That is according to a report from 90minwho claim that Aston Villa were in the running ahead of Spurs, who now seemingly have a £26m agreement with Brighton over the Malian midfielder, despite entering the race at a later date.

As per a report by Graeme Bailey who took to his personal Twitter page; "Aston Villa held talks but [the] player indicated preference to move to London."

Gerrard surely upset

The signing of Bissouma would have represented an astute level-up in the engine room for Aston Villa and Gerrard will be aware of this, considering his desire to move for the 25-year-old.

Bissouma would have fit right into Villa's aggressive transfer approach this summer and, more so, would have bolstered their defensive numbers quite drastically.

With an average of 3.11 tackles per game, 2.34 interceptions and 2.17 clearances per 90, Bissouma has put up some numbers that demonstrate his defensive excellence in the centre of the pitch, bettering N'Golo Kante's respective numbers of; 2.74 tackles, 2.09 interceptions and 0.61 clearances per 90. A real statement from the Malian man.

The 25-year-old would certainly have bolstered Villa's resistance and helped them improve on their average of 1.4 goals conceded per match - a metric that sees them ranked 11th in the Premier League, five places below Brighton.

Under the guidance of a tactician like Potter, defensive astuteness has been drilled into Bissouma and makes him a real destroyer in the engine room.

In fairness to Villa, they were in the queue first and bided their time over his availability, willing to spend some of their transfer kitty on the number 8 wearing midfielder. Though, they cannot help their location and as such will miss out on what is defensively elite player, something that will leave Gerrard rather upset.

In other news: Lange could land the new James Milner as AVFC plot bid for "athletic" £14.4m-rated gem