Niasse to see you! Villa eye £15m ace

Striker Oumar Niasse is believed to be on Villa's radar as Remi Garde looks to overhaul his squad in time to keep them in the Premier League.

The Lokomotiv Moscow forward is currently enjoying a prolific season in Russia, scoring 12 goals in 21 appearances.

Capped five times by Senegal, Niasse can play out wide or as a centre forward.

But Villa are likely to face competition for the 25-year-old with Chelsea, Everton and Newcastle also reported to be keen.

Garde is known to want to add more fire power to his squad and publicly declared his interest in Chelsea forward Loic Remy.

But Crystal Palace are now believed to be leading the chase for the French forward who isn't in favour at Stamford Bridge.

Price tag

It's believed Lokomotiv have slapped a £15 million price tag on the head of Niasse who is known for his his pace, strength and high work-rate.

Elsewhere, scouts from Villa flew to Portugal to watch the game between Vitoria Setubal and Sporting Braga on Saturday.

Bayern Munich, Southampton and Celtic also sent scouts to the match with the German champions there to monitor the form of their on-loan keeper Lukas Raeder at Setubal.

Villa could also have been keeping tabs on the 22-year-old German, who started last season as back-up to Manuel Neuer, as they search for a keeper to provide competition to Brad Guzan.

Another potential target could be Braga centre-back Wily Boly – a former France under-16, under-17 and under-19 international who is well known to Garde.

The ex-Auxerre starlet, who stands 6ft 3in tall, has started 26 league matches in the past two seasons since Braga snapped him up for a rumoured £1.5million.