The club are reportedly trying to bring the 28-year-old Senegal international to Villa Park on a loan deal for the rest of the season.
While Aston Villa manager Remi Garde has made no secret of his interest in bringing both Chelsea striker Loic Remy and Arsenal right-back Mathieu Debuchy to the Midlands this month, he is giving nothing away when it comes to his latest reported target.
According to the likes of Sky Sports, the Villa boss is keen to make Bordeaux centre-back Lamine Sane his first acquisition for the claret and blues and talks are ongoing over a potential deal.
The 28-year-old Senegal international, whose current contract expires in 2017, has played over 200 games for the French club since being signed from amateur side US Lamont in 2008 but has featured just six times in League 1 this season after falling out of favour.
Reports earlier this week had suggested that the two sides were close to agreeing a six-month loan deal for the French-born defender, but negotiations are since said to have stalled due to Bordeaux’s desire to sell him outright [h/t Birmingham Mail].
Asked about the club’s rumoured pursuit of the 6ft 4in stopper at his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s visit of high-flying Leicester City, Garde said: “It’s useless for me and it won’t help me to say anything about individual players that I could target or not.
“It’s not helping anybody. I know for [the media] it’s very important, but if I sign a player you will know about it.”
Pressed on whether his first Villa signing was close, the Frenchman added: “I don’t know exactly what close means. Until the signature has been put on the paper, you can be close and miss it.
“I don’t want to be too accurate on the positions or numbers of the players I try to sign.”
Garde did stress that he has made the board aware of his desired targets after being promised funds to help boost his struggling side’s survival hopes, but with the mid-season window a tough time to do business even before taking into account the club’s position at the foot of the Premier League, he admitted that it would be hard to make instant impact signings.
“The board knows exactly what I want,” he said at his presser. “We are working on that for now. I know that it’s very important to strengthen the team. I have said that to the club.
“I have been here for two months. I have assessed the team and players individually, as well as the collective strengths and weaknesses within the squad. For the moment I didn’t sign any players – but there are still two weeks to go.
“I would like to have my personal touch on the team, but the January transfer window is not the best time to sign many, many players because of two reasons: the first one is that the players you want are not especially available in the middle of the season, and then secondly, when you bring many, many players it’s difficult to settle them all together.
“We probably need at least a pre-season to make them comfortable.”
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