Familiar Aston Villa transfer link re-emerges as Man United 'make contact'

Lille striker Jonathan David, who has previously been linked with a move to Aston Villa, is attracting more interest from the Premier League after being told he can leave the French club this summer. Manchester United, Tottenham and West Ham have all scouted the striker, who is a Canadian international and who made 35 goal contributions last season including scoring 19 Ligue 1 goals.

The 24-year-old is currently away with Canada in Copa America - they lost their opening game 2-0 to Emi Martinez's Argentina on Friday - but he has been granted a move this summer having moved into the final year of his deal. Lille have no choice but to listen to offers for fear of losing David for nothing 12 months from now.

David, who has netted 84 goals in 183 appearances for Lille as well as 26 goals from his 48 Canadian caps, helped fire Lille to the Ligue 1 title in his first season in 2021 but it now appears inevitable that he will be playing elsewhere next season. Indeed the freedom for him to move on has been confirmed by club's president, Olivier Letang.

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"We have two players who have an exit voucher with Leny [Yoro] and Jonathan [David]," Letang said earlier this month, when admitting that the club would have to cash in before it became too late and David walked away on a free next summer.

Villa are likely to be on the look-out for another centre forward this summer if the transfer window takes shape as anticipated; as well as the undisputed first choice Ollie Watkins, Unai Emery currently also has Jhon Duran and the returning Cameron Archer on the books, but there are doubts of the future of the latter pair.

Duran has attracted interest from Chelsea this summer and Villa could make a tidy profit on the deal they struck with Chicago Fire to bring the Colombian to England in the first place 18 months ago. Archer, meanwhile, triggered a return to Villa Park when Sheffield United were relegated, but it's likely that the Lions will listen to offers too for their academy product.

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