After speculation remains rife that Brad Friedel will not accept a new deal at the club, with Tottenham reportedly ready to vie for his signature with Liverpool, Villa have been linked with another replacement and not for the first time, it’s Nottingham Forest’s Lee Camp.
The Daily Mirror have claimed that the club are ready to offer the Championship play-off failures £3.5m for the Northern Ireland international. Camp is one of the clubs key assets and has won the Player of the Year award with Forest since signing from QPR in 2009.
26-year-old Camp kept an impressive 15 clean sheets having played all of Forest’s 48 league games this term, 2 of which were in the play-off semis defeat to Swansea. In those appearances he let in just 51 goals. Despite playing 5 times for England at Under-21 level, Camp opted to play for Northern Ireland in the hope for more regular senior international action and he has turned out twice for them in the past season, stepping in to replace the ageing Maik Taylor.
In recent times the club have been linked to Bolton keeper Ali Al-Habsi, with the club reportedly asking for £5m for the Oman international. Recent polls suggest that Villa fans would be more open to a move for Man City wantaway Shay Given or Birmingham’s Ben Foster to replace 40-year-old Friedel.
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