Liverpool have made a surprise move for the Aston Villa full-back Luke Young. Roy Hodgson, the Liverpool manager, tried to sign Young earlier this year when he was in charge of Fulham and he has now rekindled his interest in the former England international.
Liverpool are understood to have tabled a £2.75m bid for a player who has been told he is surplus to requirements at Villa Park.
Although Hodgson's pursuit of Young might raise a few eyebrows among Liverpool supporters, the
31-year-old is able to operate in
both full-back positions and was asked to represent England as recently as last November, when Fabio Capello failed to persuade the defender to reverse the decision he made earlier that year to retire from international football with seven caps to his name. He would also increase Liverpool's quota of
homegrown players to comply with the new Premier League rule.
Liverpool are also short of options in the full-back positions after losing both Emiliano Insúa, who has joined Fiorentina, and Fábio Aurélio, who has left the club on a free transfer. Philipp Degen, the Switzerland right-back, has also been told that he can look for another club after meeting with Hodgson last week.
Although
Villa are expected to hold out for closer to £3.5m for Young, the fee is unlikely to prove to be a major stumbling block. Villa have been keen to offload the former Tottenham Hotspur trainee as he is
one of the club's higher earners and has three years remaining on his contract. Sunderland had also expressed an interest in signing Young this summer but were unable to match his personal terms.
Villa's decision to make Young available for transfer came as a disappointment to many of the club's supporters. Having joined Villa from Middlesbrough in a £5.5m deal two years ago, Young
performed well in his first season but his start to the following campaign was curtailed through a combination of
injury and personal tragedy, when Andre, his 17-year-old half-brother, was found dead on holiday.
Young eventually came back into the Villa side but made
only 14 Premier League starts and was ultimately unable to dislodge Carlos Cuéllar, an orthodox central defender, from the right-back position. He remained a popular figure among the Villa supporters, however, and was given a standing ovation when he appeared as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers in the final match of the season.
Old, not a natural left back, big wages and costs money.
If he was free and unpretentious, I'd take him.
Otherwise, no.
