Bentancur has emerged as Aston Villa’s top target in the last week of the transfer window as Steven Gerrard seeks to add a defensive midfielder to his squad.

 

The Aston Villa boss wants more solidity in the middle of the park, which could free up John McGinn and Jacob Ramsey to be more attacking after the international break.

 

 

Brighton’s Yves Bissouma was a target but a price tag of £40m has forced Villa to look at other targets.

 

Bentancur is the man they want and Aston Villa had a scout present at the San Siro over the weekend to watch him in action against AC Milan but a hefty sell-on clause has reportedly complicated the pursuit.

 

 

The presence of a hefty sell-on clause in the agreement that saw Bentancur move to Juventus from Boca Juniors in 2017 has made things tricky for Villa.

 

Aston Villa are looking for a cut-price deal and for the moment, it makes little financial sense for Juventus to let him go in January.

 

 

However, Juventus are looking to sign Dusan Vlahovic this week and would likely need to shed some load from their wage bill in order to sign him.

 

Bentancur is a player Massimiliano Allegri admirers and he does not want to part ways with him this month, but he may be forced to.

 

The original sell-on clause stood at 50 per cent and while Juventus have been working to reduce the share, they would still have to part ways with a significant percentage of any fee they would earn from the midfielder’s sale.