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According to The Birmingham Mail, Jack Grealish’s injury at the Graham Taylor memorial match against Watford has forced Bruce’s hand and he will be dipping into the transfer market to bolster Villa’s attack.
Fans have been calling for Steve Bruce to sign someone that can bag goals, or add creativity in the final third after some worrisome performances in front the opposition net during the pre-season without star striker Jonathan Kodjia.
With Villa being closely linked to Liverpool winger Sheyi Ojo, who looks close to joining Premier League outfit Newcastle United – us at The Claret and View are going to take look at three forwards who could potentially strengthen our attack and how likely they are to join.
1) Abel Hernandez – Hull City (Likeliness: 4/5)
With Steve Bruce already taking advantage of his experience as Hull City manager with the signing of Elmohamady, he could bring forward Abel Hernandez to join the Villa revolution. With Blues showing interest in him, it could be a tough ask to bring him to Villa Park. Villa have been linked with Abel for a number of seasons, and with his ex-manager at the helm, there’s a decent chance that we could be seeing him finally in a claret and blue shirt.
2) Chris Wood – Leeds United (Likeliness: 1/5)
New Zealand international Chris Wood has been linked away from Leeds for a while, and this seems to be the year that he’s set to leave. He’d be an incredible coup for the Villa, but unfortunately it doesn’t look inherently likely as Turkish giants Besiktas are in pole position to sign him according to Turkish source Fotomac.
3) Peter Crouch (Likeliness: 3/5)
Big Man Peter Crouch finished as The Potter’s top scorer last season, showing that he’s still got the ability to perform at the top level. With Bruce recently adding a core of experienced players to the squad, the acquisition of Crouch would make sense. Whether Crouch would leave The Bet365 Stadium however, is another question. Villa are currently favourites to sign him.
At the same time however, there are a number of attacking prospects emerging from the Villa academy, with Keinan Davis garnering more attention each time he steps foot on the pitch, and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Harry McKirdy (who recently did is senior squad initiation in Germany) knocking on the door of the first team squad, surely it would make more sense to blood in the youngsters?
