Aston Villa are likely to be linked to a host of French targets this summer, assuming Gerard Houllier returns to the post as expected, and are already being touted with moves for Rennes and France international Yann M’Vila and Lorient’s Morgan Amalfitano. 20-year-old M’Vila is a real prospect and one of many to have been tipped as the next Patrick Vieira (see Guieda Fofana). The defensive midfielder’s future with Rennes is unknown with interest mounting from the Premier League with the player saying that his future “could be at Rennes or somewhere else.” At his young age he has already made 8 senior international caps which is a good indicator of his promise, therefore he is likely to command a large fee with his contract running until 2014. The name Morgan Amalfitano is a new one to me but after looking at his stats this season and the fact that he is out of contract in the summer, this is likely to be a more credible link. The 26-year-old attacking midfielder has scored 5 goals in 33 games and assisted an impressive 12. The player’s form is likely to have caught the eye of many teams around Europe as he has netted all 5 of his league goals and picked up 11 of his twelve assists in the last 21 games (16 goal contributions in that short spell). Over the season he has scored/assisted a goal every 174 minutes (under 2 games). He has a pretty high 9 yellow cards in those 33 appearances
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