- EXCLUSIVE from Graeme Bailey
Aston Villa are in the market for a new right-back with Denzel Dumfries of Serie A leaders Inter Milan one option under consideration by the Premier League outfit.
HITC Football understands that, while the summer window is still a few months away, Aston Villa are already drawing up plans to reinforce one key position.
Matty Cash and Ezri Konsa have shared right-back duties of late, the latter fielded in a previously role by Unai Emery to often excellent effect. Konsa, a centre-half by trade, excelled on the flank in the statement wins over Arsenal and Manchester City, with Cash only reclaiming the spot after the former Brentford ace was ruled out with a knee injury.
HITC have now been informed that Aston Villa could look to bring in further competition for the full-back berth. Denzel Dumfries, Inter Milan’s buccaneering powerhouse, is one option, but not the only one being considered.
Aston Villa eyeing Inter Milan’s Denzel Dumfries
27-year-old Dumfries joined the Nerrazzuri back in 2021 for a bargain fee of around £10.5 million. Inter will likely demand a far larger fee should Villa come calling but, with just 18 months left on his contract at San Siro, it seems unlikely that any asking price will be out of the range of one of the Premier League’s more well-heeled clubs.
Inter have already signed a potential long-term replacement in the silky Canadian Tajon Buchanan.
Dumfries, who captained PSV Eindhoven and has accumulated 50 caps for the Netherlands national team, is something of a mix of Konsa and Cash’s best attributes. At 6ft 2ins, he possesses the physicality of the former and combines it with the running power of the latter, the flying Dutchman an express train down the right when he gets up to full speed.
He’s scored twice and set up four more goals in 2023/24 already for Simone Inzaghi’s Inter side.
‘A really great player’
“Dumfries is our big star. He is really our very best player at the moment. He’s involved in everything,” Dutch icon Rafael van der Vaart told NOS in September.
“He has provided seven assists in the last seven (international) games, but it could have been even more. He is always on the move. A really great player.
“He is the ideal full-back.”
Aston Villa did sign another right-sided defender in Kosta Nedeljkovic in January. Having only turned 18, however, the £8 million signing from Red Star Belgrade is likely to be one for the future.
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