Aston Villa are eyeing a move for Fulham centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo, with a major transfer update hinting that a move could be more likely this summer.

What's the story?

Despite having a firmly established centre-back partnership in Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings - the latter of course now with the England squad for Euro 2020 - it appears that Dean Smith is keen on reinforcing in that area.

According to Complete Sports, Villa are among a host of Premier League clubs interested in signing Adarabioyo, with West Ham and Southampton also said to be keen on him.

The report follows on from Fabrizio Romano's claim that the centre-back has a release clause of just £10m in his Fulham contract.

Premier League proven

While the centre-back might have been playing for a Fulham side which was relegated, that certainly doesn't take away from how impressive he has been at Craven Cottage, or how good he could potentially become at Villa - you only have to look at Liverpool signings the likes of Georginio Wijnaldum and Andy Robertson in recent years to see that.

Having been described as a "high quality, class player" and "immense" by Tony Mowbray, his former boss at Blackburn, Adarabioyo has the kind of pedigree which could really bolster Smith's side.

Mowbray said: "The reason we brought him was because of his attributes. He’s 6ft 5in, he’s very very quick, his distribution is as a good as any centre-back in the division."

The former Manchester City starlet is also significantly better than any of Villa's defensive options when it comes to playing out from the back, and even anyone in the entire squad - his 57.7 average passes per game at an accuracy of 86.2% would rank him top among all of Villa's players.

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It's no surprise that City manager Guardiola has previously called him "exceptional", or why Villa are keen on landing him this summer.

Given his tender age of 23, his Premier League experience and his homegrown status, Adarabioyo fits everything that Smith recently suggested Villa would be targeting in the transfer window.

It's exactly why the Villa boss would surely love to have him at the Midlands club.

Meanwhile, Ashley Preece has dropped an exciting Aston Villa transfer claim...