Aston Villa poised to make three major new signings - report

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Published on:

11 Aug 2016, 3:03 pm

By Harry Sykes

Aston Villa are close to the triple signing of James Chester, Ritchie de Laet and Mile Jedinak, according to a report.

The Sun claim the Midlands giants are poised to strengthen their squad after losing their opening two matches of the season.

It is said centre-back Chester will join for around £6million from West Brom, right-back De Laet will transfer for £2.5million from Leicester and midfielder Jedinak is on the verge of a switch from Crystal Palace.

Owner Tony Xia slammed the Aston Villa players in the immediate wake of the team's humiliating EFL Cup defeat to League Two Luton on Wednesday night.

Defender Chester starred for Wales in this summer’s European Championships but found first team chances hard to come by at the Baggies last season following his £8million move from Hull a year ago.

The Sun claim Villa's move for title-winning right-back De Laet is also close to completion after he made just 12 appearances for the Foxes last season.

The third deal that is slightly further behind the other two is for Palace's midfield enforcer and former captain Jedinak.

Xia has said he wants a tough midfielder in by this weekend, and while Aussie Jedinak has refuted exit rumours, he was stripped of the captaincy by Eagles’ boss Alan Pardew this week in favour of Scott Dann.

Di Matteo called for new signings to strengthen the squad in the wake of the 3-1 defeat to Luton on Wednesday and the outspoken club owner Xia could not hide his anger following the performance from the recently relegated side.

The Chinese tycoon hinted at a fire sale as he claimed "some players are not worth being given chance" on his personal Twitter account.

Here is Xia responding to a supporter on his personal Twitter account.

@StanCollymore @Dr_TonyXia tonight is the night we have2celebrate...the last time we'll c that utter garbage again 🙏🏻#getrid #bestrong #avfc
— Rich Allen (@richallen10) August 10, 2016

Even we agreed to take the LC match as checking game, some players are not worth being given chance. https://t.co/jAOrXj9yFR
— Dr. Tony Xia (@Dr_TonyXia) August 10, 2016

The Chinese Tycoon purchased the Midlands club in June for a reported fee of £75 million, with it he assigned Italian Roberto Di Matteo to guide the club back to the Premier League.

Villa are without a competitive win since February when they beat fellow Championship rivals Norwich 2-0 in the Premier League.

Di Matteo now has the task in guiding the club to their first victory in six months when they take on Rotherham at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon.

In other Aston Villa transfer news, former striker Stan Collymore gave a ruthless assessment to the club's humiliating exit to Luton Town in the EFL Cup.

Aston Villa

Tony Xia