Club preparing "concrete move" to sign Liverpool star, Slot has hinted he wants to keep him | OneFootball

Aston Villa are reportedly preparing a concrete move to seal the transfer of Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones this summer.

Jones came up through Liverpool’s academy, but has not quite lived up to his potential, and no longer commands a regular first-team place at Anfield.

According to TEAMtalk, Villa are now emerging as strong contenders to sign the England international in what could be a summer of major changes to Arne Slot’s squad.

Jones looks like he could be a decent addition to Unai Emery’s squad, even if he’s not quite shown himself to be good enough to start regularly for a big club like Liverpool.

Curtis Jones set for Aston Villa transfer?

TEAMtalk report that Villa and Liverpool have a good relationship, despite some issues this season with Harvey Elliott’s loan spell at Villa Park.

Elliott has not played very often for Emery’s side and LFC probably aren’t too happy about that, but that shouldn’t necessarily prevent the clubs agreeing another deal.

It surely makes sense for the Reds to offload Jones, with the Telegraph also recently naming the 25-year-old as one of the players who could be shown the door in a major clear-out this summer.

Arne Slot has hinted he would rather keep Curtis Jones

It will be interesting to see how this develops, however, as Slot himself has recently said that Jones remains part of his plans.

See below as Fabrizio Romano quoted Slot as discussing Jones’ future back in February, suggesting he was not planning to allow the player to leave…

“He will be part of our plans for the upcoming weeks, months and also for next season.”

Jones could be a useful squad player for Liverpool, but all speculation since then suggests he’s no longer part of the long-term plan at Anfield.

That may be because Jones himself wants to leave and play more often, or it could be that LFC have decided that they’d like to take the opportunity to make pure profit from selling a homegrown player.