Ashley Preece believes that Aston Villa should go big for Yves Bissouma in the January transfer window.

What's been said?

In a recent article for Birmingham Live, Preece stated his belief that, following the Brighton midfielder's dominant display despite his team's 2-0 loss at Villa Park on Saturday, the 25-year-old is a player who Steven Gerrard, Johan Lange and Christian Purslow should be looking to sign in the upcoming winter market.

In his piece, the journalist wrote: "What a signing Yves Bissouma would be for Villa. The Malian just oozed class on Saturday. 'He's a proper player,' was what my colleague said to me moments in, with Bissouma dribbling past three Villa shirts before starting a Brighton attack.

"Under the watchful eye of Gerrard, his coaches and transfer chief Johan Lange in the directors' box, Villa could do a lot worse than to raid Brighton and go big on Bissouma who, by the way, has just 19 months left on his current deal. You'd imagine he'd cost around the £30million-plus mark, which is not bad for a player who does all the right things."

He'd be a huge coup

Considering that Bissoma has been linked with moves to clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur this year, it would be a rather huge coup for Gerrard if Aston Villa indeed go on to seal a deal for the 25-year-old in January.

As Preece suggests, it would very much appear to be a move worth pursuing, as the Mali international has continually wowed at the Amex Stadium since his move to the south coast back in 2018.

Indeed, over his eight Premier League appearances so far this season, the £22.5m-rated maestro has made an impressive average of 2.1 interceptions and 3.8 tackles - the third and joint-most respectively out of all Premier League players in the current campaign - and won 6.6 duels per game.

These returns have seen the £25k-per-week midfielder average a SofaScore match rating of 7.17, ranking him as Graham Potter's fourth-best performer in the top flight of English football.

Indeed, when comparing his seasonal returns to that of Marvelous Nakamba, his opposite number on Saturday, the Brighton man beats the 27-year-old hands down, with the Villa midfielder averaging a SofaScore match rating of just 6.56 so far this season.

As such, with Preece suggesting that Bissouma would be available for a fee of around £30m this winter, it would seem highly advisable for Lange to do all he can to secure a deal for the Seagulls star, as the midfielder's signing could help to fire Villa towards the European places in the Premier League table come next May.

In other news: Lange can seal Gerrard's dream Villa deal with bargain swoop for "next level" gem