Aston Villa have had a bid rejected by Bayer Leverkusen for French winger Moussa Diaby, sources have confirmed to 90min.
Villa are in the market for wingers and have already seen moves for Athletic Bilbao's Nico Williams and Barcelona pair Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati fail to materialise. They also came close to landing Marcos Asensio, before the Spaniard chose to join Paris Saint Germain after leaving Real Madrid.
However, Villa are working hard on options and have turned their attention to Diaby, who has long been a target for Premier League clubs. Newcastle have been long-term suitors and held talks last summer, while Arsenal have also been monitoring his situation for a number of months.
But Villa made the first move and have lodged an opening offer worth €35m (£30m) plus add-ons. 90min understands that Leverkusen wasted little time in rejecting the bid though.
The Bundesliga club have made it clear they want around €60m (£51m) for Diaby, although sources have told 90min that they expect an offer worth over €50m (£43m) could be enough to land the 24-year-old, who is under contact at the BayArena until 2025.
Talks have already taken place with Diaby's camp and the belief is that he would be happy to move to Villa Park, where Unai Emery, along with new president of footballing operations Monchi, is plotting an assault on the Premier League top four after a blistering end to last season.
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Having already landed Belgian midfielder Youri Tielemans and Spanish defender Pau Torres, Villa have now turned their attention to the attacking third of the pitch and it is believed they could bring in two new forwards - they now hope one of those is Diaby.
It is understood that talks have continued, despite Leverkusen rejecting the first offer.
The Germans remain hopeful that Diaby will opt to stay put and continue his development under Xabi Alonso. In that respect, the winger has admitted he has enjoyed life under the boss so far.
"When he got here, the first thing he did was to change the mentality within the squad. He asked us to forget about what happened before he got there, and told us to play as if we were starting a new season," Diaby explained.
"He brought his experience to the club; he uses what he has been through as a player to help us improve on a daily basis. He's done really well so far, so long may it continue. We're very happy that he's our head coach."
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This article was originally published on 90min as Aston Villa rebuffed with opening offer for Moussa Diaby.
