Birmingham City’s Josh McEachran claims he nearly joined Aston Villa

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Aston Villa were looking to sign Josh McEachran over the summer.

Birmingham City midfielder Josh McEachran has told the Birmingham Mail that he was close to signing for Aston Villa over the summer.

McEachran, 26, was famously tipped for stardom at Chelsea, but only managed 22 first-team appearances for the Blues before heading to Brentford in 2015.

The midfielder made more than 100 appearances for Brentford before being released over the summer, with his contract coming to an end.

McEachran had interest from a number of clubs, and The Sun actually reported that Dean Smith wanted to reunite with him at Aston Villa.

The pair worked together at Brentford, and it was believed that Smith wanted to offer McEachran a Premier League opportunity in the Villa midfield.

However, not only did McEachran not sign for Villa in the end, but he ended up signing for bitter rivals Birmingham City in September, penning a two-year deal.

Now, McEachran has admitted that he was ‘close’ to joining Villa, but ‘things went a bit wrong’ and a move to Villa Park collapsed.

McEachran admitted he is now happy at Birmingham and doesn’t need to talk about Villa, but it’s quite something that he was set to join Villa, but ended up with the Blues.

“I was close to signing but one or two things went a bit wrong and it didn’t end up,” said McEachran. “I am here now, I am happy here now so I don’t really need to speak about that,” he added.