Ornstein reveals Aston Villa contact for Tottenham star in Gallagher revenge mission as summer battle predicted | OneFootball

Aston Villa lost out to Tottenham Hotspur in the race to sign Conor Gallagher last month – but it’s now emerged that they have tried to get their own back by snatching a Spurs player for themselves.

Gallagher joined Tottenham from Atletico Madrid in January, despite initially being open to signing for Aston Villa instead. It marked the second time Gallagher snubbed a move to Villa Park after they previously agreed a deal with Chelsea in 2024 before his Spanish switch.

Villa’s eventual response was to re-sign Douglas Luiz on loan from Juventus after his unsuccessful spell at Nottingham Forest. However, David Ornstein has now shed light on their interest in a talented Tottenham midfielder.

According to his report for The Athletic, Villa made contact with Tottenham about Lucas Bergvall after missing out on Gallagher.

The deal didn’t progress, since Spurs were in no mood to consider selling Bergvall, despite his gametime dropping under Thomas Frank compared to what it was like under Ange Postecoglou.

Nevertheless, Ornstein – one of the most reliable transfer journalists in the world – has predicted that Tottenham ‘could face a battle’ to keep Bergvall in the summer.

Also among his admirers are Chelsea, who coincidentally were also in the mix for Luiz before missing out to Villa. Spurs’ London rivals were also in direct club-to-club contact for Bergvall.

Bergvall is under contract with Tottenham until 2031 and was named as their player of the season for 2024-25. But their miserable fortunes this season will inevitably lead to rumours about some of their better players – especially ones who haven’t played as often as they’d like.

Want more breaking transfer lines from original sources? Add TEAMtalk as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust.

It isn’t explicitly clear if Villa will be back in for Bergvall in the summer, but it’s worth remembering that Luiz is only back on loan.

Even so, Spurs will likely meet any offers for Bergvall with resistance. TEAMtalk’s Dean Jones revealed in December that he is internally viewed as a player who could develop into a £100m asset.

For now, though, Bergvall is currently sidelined with an ankle injury.

Aston Villa and Tottenham in more transfer battles

But the story doesn’t stop there between Villa and Spurs.

For example, according to the Italian media, Villa have reportedly joined Spurs in the race for an impressive Serie A midfielder.