Aston Villa hit with major setback in bid for Atletico Madrid attacker

The Lions are looking to bolster their attacking prowess by signing Atletico Madrid star Joao Felix. The Portuguese forward, 24, is manager Unai Emery’s top target for the transfer window, as he looks for a versatile forward to replace Saudi-bound Moussa Diaby.

Villa will be competing in the Champions League next season, and with top European football should come top players. The starting XI already has some world-class talent in the likes of English striker OIlie Watkins and Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.

However, Aston Villa will have to negotiate with Atletico to secure his services - and having signed him for a club-record fee of £113m in 2019, the Spanish side will be keen to get a solid return on their investment.

According to reports, Atletico want £38m for their talismanic forward - and although a loan deal would be possible, the La Liga giants will only consider that if all other options have been exhausted.

But while it could prove to be a huge loss for Atletico, ex-Liverpool star John Barnes believes Felix would be worth every single penny to Villa. He said: “Joao Felix is a player who’s very, very technical and very good. But if all you have is technical players it’ll be tough. This is why he never worked at Chelsea and even for Portugal, because you’ve got lots of technical players.

“If you have lots of hard working players around him then he gives you that extra bit of quality. Yes, it can work and if you look at the players that they’ve trusted and they’ve signed, they could complement each other because you have to complement each other with styles.

“From a creativity point of view, he can give me that creativity. He’ll play very well with Ollie Watkins, but as I said you’ll have to have hard workers around him.”