Reunion between Smith and Maupay is Villa’s only chance of promotion if Abraham leaves

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Wolves want to sign Tammy Abraham in a big-money January deal, according to the Sun, which would be a major blow to Aston Villa’s hopes of promotion from the Championship.

They report that the prospect of the Old Gold’s £18m bid could tempt Chelsea to recall the hitman from Villa Park and cash in on him.

That would be a hammer blow to Villa, as Abraham has hit 16 goals for his temporary employers so far this season.

Without Abraham’s goals, it would be very tough to see Dean Smith’s side making up the group to clamber into the play-off places – never mind the top two – unless they bring in a player who can score goals and hit the ground running.

There are not many of those around in the January transfer market but one man who fits the bill is Neal Maupay, of Smith’s former club Brentford.

The Bees’ form has fallen off a cliff since their manager departed and Maupay recently refused to rule out the possibility of a move if Smith asked him to join him at Villa.

He has one less goal to his name than Abraham, and being atuned with Smith’s demands and methods would help to shorten any teething problems at Villa Park.

Maupay would surely be expensive, but Villa have shown that they are willing to spend big and gamble big to get themselves back into the Premier League and without Abraham, they would need to pull out all the stops to get up.