Emery wants to bring £17.2m attacker to Villa Park, Bielsa was a big fan

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery will be hoping to use the January transfer window to start to put his own stamp on the squad.

Back-to-back league wins ahead of the World Cup break have lifted Villa to 12^th in the table.

Ninth place Fulham are seperated from bottom of the league Nottingham Forest by just nine points.

Every team in the bottom half will therefore be looking to strengthen in January to avoid a relegation scrap.

One problem that Villa have had all season is scoring goals.

A late flurry from Danny Ings has seen his tally reach five this season, but it was something Steven Gerrard couldn’t fix.

The report from Il Messaggero now suggests that Villa want to sign Vedat Muriqi from Mallorca.

The Kosovan international only joined the La Liga side in the summer from Lazio.

Villa want to sign Muriqi

Muriqi has a very different profile to Aston Villa’s current forward options.

The 6”4 forward is fantastic in the air, and causes a lot of problems for centre-backs.

The left-footed forward has been one of the standout players in La Liga this season.

His eight goals in 12 games means only Robert Lewandowski has outscored him.

Muriqi managed to score in each of his last five games, helping Mallorca sit comfortably in mid-table.

The Kosovan has a fantastic international record, and is his country’s all-time top scorer.

If Villa want to sign Muriqi, they’ll have to fight off Sevilla, who can already offer him European football.

Emery has been linked with signing a much more high-profile forward in January, in the form of Eden Hazard.

He’s also got a completely different profile to Muriqi, and it’ll be interesting to see which direction Villa end up going in.