ASTON VILLA have agreed a fee with Manchester City for Richard Dunne, believed to be about €6.8 million, and hope to follow up the signing of the Republic of Ireland centre-half with the acquisition of the Blackburn Rovers full-back Stephen Warnock as Martin O’Neill seeks to strengthen his threadbare squad.
The Villa manager has identified Dunne as a replacement for Martin Laursen, who retired at the end of last season, and is likely to offer the 29-year-old the captaincy at the midlands club when he discusses personal terms. Whether that will be enough to satisfy Dunne remains to be seen, with the central defender saying only a fortnight ago, when Joleon Lescott’s arrival was already widely anticipated, that he wanted to be part of City’s exciting future.
Dunne has almost three years remaining on his contract at City and is believed to be earning about €68,000 a week, a figure that Villa would at least need to match to have a chance of convincing the former Everton trainee that he should move to Birmingham. That salary would be at the top end of Villa’s wage scale, but with O’Neill desperate to bring in an experienced central defender and time running out before the transfer window closes on Monday, wages are unlikely to be a sticking point.
The Warnock deal is not so advanced, with Villa yet to meet Blackburn’s asking price, which is believed to be close to €8 million.
However, discussions between the two clubs are ongoing. Sam Allardyce, the Blackburn manager, is resigned to losing the full-back and is lining up a replacement in Tottenham’s Pascal Chimbonda, and with Warnock making it clear that he would like to join Villa, it seems a matter of when and not if an agreement will be reached for the former Liverpool player.
Once O’Neill has completed his transfer business the Villa manager is set to open talks with Curtis Davies about signing a new contract as a reward for his progress since he arrived from West Bromwich Albion in 2007.
The 24-year-old, who was impressive against Liverpool on Monday when he scored Villa’s second goal in their 3-1 victory at Anfield, is expected to be offered an extended deal on improved terms to recognise his status as an established first-team player.
Davies has become a regular at the heart of the Villa defence and was called up to the England squad for the first time in February last year. Although he has yet to win a cap at senior level, Villa have acknowledged his development over the past 18 months and plan to increase his salary accordingly.
Meanwhile, Paul McShane’s move from Sunderland to Hull City was still being wrapped up last night, despite the 23-year-old defender having apparently passed his medical and broadly agreed personal terms over the course of Monday.
A number of loose ends were apparently still to be tied up last night but Hull City manager Phil Brown was sufficiently confident that the deal will go through to talk about McShane making his debut against the club he is leaving, Sunderland, on September 12th.
“He’s probably going to miss Saturday’s game (due to his ongoing recovery from knee surgery) but then there’s a two-week break,” says Brown.
“He’s not been called up for international duty so we’ll be pencilling in Sunderland away,” added Brown.
Asked what had prompted him to move for the Irishman, Brown cited the player’s enthusiasm and determination during his loan spell at the club last year.
“He’s got the heart-on-the-sleeve, never-say-die attitude of a player that puts everything into his performance whether he’s in a Hull City strip or an Ireland strip,” said the manager.
“He can only be an asset for the way he played in the first half of last season.
“He watched from afar at Sunderland seeing us struggling for survival in the Premier League but now that we have, that’s one of the main reasons why he wanted to come back.”
