Report: Aston Villa now in straight two-club fight for tough tackling £6m player

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Aston Villa have put in a £10m bid for Real Betis left-back Alex Moreno but face a fight with an unnamed club to sign him in January.

Moreno has quickly as emerged as one of the key targets for Unai Emery. The 29-year-old is widely regarded as one of Spain’s best full-backs never to win an international cap.

Reports over the weekend had linked Moreno with a move to Villa. Indeed, it was even suggested that a deal was more or less done for the Spanish full-back.

However, nothing seems to be that close just yet and 90Min has reported today that Villa’s actual bid for Moreno is around the £10m mark. That is some £5m lower than what was reported over the weekend, albeit it it’s more than the £6m Betis paid in the first place.

Interestingly though, 90Min claims that Villa don’t quite a straight run at signing Moreno. They claim that another club is in active talks to land the Spaniard, meaning Villa might end up having to play a waiting game.

It remains to be seen who that other club is. Nottingham Forest had been interested in Moreno previously. But the Reds seem settled for now, and a move for Moreno would be a surprise as it stands.

TBR’s View: Villa facing waiting game for Moreno

This isn’t what Unai Emery wanted to see. He would have been hoping this would be a relatively easy deal to do but it seems this other club have other ideas.

Moreno is clearly a highly coveted player. At 29, he has bags of experience and there’s a reason he’s so well respected over in Spain.

Villa, though, must wait and see. And in a January window where so much is happening, that’s never a position a club likes to be in.