Aston Villa eye loan moves for Chelsea pair

 

Aston Villa are interested in taking Chelsea midfielders Ross Barkley or Ruben Loftus-Cheek on loan, claims The Daily Telegraph.

 

Dean Smith is desperate to sign a true 'No. 8' before the transfer window closes to beef up his midfield options.

 

Douglas Luiz, Conor Hourihane and John McGinn are Villa's first choice midfield three but none are capable of carrying out the No.8 role to Smith's taste.

 

Chelsea are expected to field offers for a number of their players over the next fortnight following their £250m summer spending spree.

 

Players like Emerson, Antonio Rudigier and Callum Hudson-Odoi have already been heavily linked with a move away from Chelsea after dropping completely out of favour.

 

Now Villa are hoping to take advantage of the situation and loan one of Barkley or Loftus-Cheek from their Premier League rivals.

 

Loftus-Cheek was a surprise starter in Chelsea's opening game of the season but hasn't even made the matchday squad since then after a poor display.

 

Barkley, meanwhile, scored on his first start of the season in Wednesday's 6-0 win over Barnsley and garnered a WhoScored rating of 9.60.

 

 

However, both England internationals are well down the pecking order in midfield and Chelsea are reportedly open for offers.

 

Frank Lampard would ideally like to sell Barkley on a permanent transfer and Chelse are in no rush to make a snap decision.

 

Barkley has only started 28 Premier League games since joining Chelsea from Everton in January 2018 and has not started more than 13 games in each of his two full league campaigns for the club.

 

Loftus-Cheek, meanwhile, only recovered from a ruptured Achilles in February after nine months out and has been a bit-part player at Chelsea his entire career.