Aston Villa are interested in a deal to bring Aaron Hickey to Villa Park in the January transfer window.

What's the talk?

That's according to a claim made by Gregg Evans, with the journalist revealing in a recent Q&A on The Athletic that Steven Gerrard's side are in the market for a new full-back this winter, with one target being Bologna left-back Aaron Hickey.

Speaking about Aston Villa's upcoming transfer plans, Evans said: "I expect to see a new arrival at full-back in one of the next two windows. Bologna left-back Aaron Hickey is a player Villa like."

Fans will be buzzing

Considering the sheer amount of potential Hickey quite clearly possesses, the news that Johan Lange and his Aston Villa transfer team are interested in a move for the defender is sure to have left the Villa Park faithful buzzing.

Indeed, over his 18 Serie A appearances so far this season, the £7.2m-rated left-back has highly impressed for Bologna, helping his side keep four clean sheets and scoring three goals, as well as making an average of 0.8 interceptions, 0.9 tackles, 0.5 key passes and winning 61% of his duels per game.

These returns have seen the £16k-per-week Scotland U21 international average a SofaScore match rating of 6.85, ranking him as the Italian club's ninth-best performer in the league.

As such, considering he is still just 19 years of age, it is undeniable that Hickey is a player who has an extremely bright future ahead of him in the professional game, as well as one who could well be Aston Villa's first-choice left-back for many a year to come.

And, considering that it was reported this summer that Bologna were only demanding £8m in order to part with the teenager - although this figure is likely to be somewhat higher following his performances in the current campaign - a deal for the Scot would very much appear to be one Lange and Villa could afford to pull off in January.

In other news: Gerrard can transform AVFC with "rarely seen" £27m-rated gem, he's a "complete player"