Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard wants to win the growing Premier League fight for Rangers’ Europa League final star Calvin Bassey.
The Villa Park outfit will have representation at Hampden to watch the Nigerian international in the Scottish Cup final with Hearts.
Gerrard wants to strengthen the left side of his defence and is keen to land the Nigerian international, who he took from Leicester City to Ibrox back in 2020.
The former Ibrox boss, however, knows he faces stiff competition with up to five English Premier League and two Serie A clubs also interested.
Rangers are still holding all the aces as Bassey is still under contract until the summer of 2024 and it would take a club record deal that would eclipse Nathan Paterson’s recent move to Everton before they would even consider selling.
Fulham, Wolves and Brentford are also keen but interest is growing on the back of his recent progress and performances in Rangers’ run to the Europa League final, where they cruelly lost on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday.
Gerrard has already stated that Villa need to do some serious work in the transfer window this summer.
His side sit a disappointing 14th in the Premier League and he acknowledged that isn’t good enough.
Bassey is one of his top targets.
Gerrard, speaking after Thursday’s draw with Burnley, said: “But everyone knows the position we’re in and if we want to take this journey where we want to take it, we have to recruit well, that’s for sure. I’ve said it for a while.
“We did that in January to improve and steer the team away from any danger, but we can’t relax being 14th in the league, these fans deserve more.”
