The Nottingham Forest skipper has been on Aston Villa’s radar for the entirety of the transfer window but a deal looks to be hanging in the balance.
It’s all well and good raising a cheer with boisterous promises but if you don’t follow through then people start asking rather searching questions.
Just a week ago, Aston Villa owner Tony Xia claimed on Twitter that the club were negotiating eight, potentially even nine transfer deals. Seven days later, a grand total of one player has entered Villa Park while Rudy Gestede, Pierluigi Gollini and Aly Cissokho have all departed via the back door.
Reported deals for Jordan Rhodes, Conor Hourihane, Robbie Brady and Jake Livermore appear no closer to fruition and the latter two appear progressively unlikely. Meanwhile, even Henri Lansbury, the Nottingham Forest captain heavily expected to be preparing for his debut in claret and blue, remains in the East of the Midlands.
And, to make matters worse, The Sun are reporting that Norwich City, where Lansbury spent a productive loan spell in 2010/11, have jumped in at the eleventh hour to tempt the out-of-contract midfielder choose Carrow Road over Villa Park. This, coupled with Villa falling ever further behind the top six, has not gone down particularly well amongst those demanding an upgrade on Mile Jedinak or a replacement for Ashley Westwood.
The fans’ patience is wearing increasingly thin.
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