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Fulham steal in for Villa's Luke Young

Fulham were today poised to capitalise on the collapse of Villa defender Luke Young's proposed move to Liverpool.

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Fulham were today poised to capitalise on the collapse of Villa defender Luke Young's proposed move to Liverpool.

The Cottagers, who appointed Mark Hughes as their new manager last night, are keen on the out-of-favour Villa right-back, who is available for £2.5million.

Fulham's interest in the former England international dates back to when Hodgson was manager at Craven Cottage and they will have been encouraged by the former Tottenham player's reluctance to relocate to the north.

Liverpool had agreed a £2.5million deal with Villa on Tuesday but it's believed the player was unable to agree personal terms.

Young is now expected to be involved in Villa's Guadiana Cup games against Feyenoord and Benfica over the weekend in Portugal after playing just one game in pre-season to date, against Basingstoke.

Despite being one of the most popular players at the club, Young found himself out of favour at Villa last season after centre-back Carlos Cuellar was preferred in his specialist right-back position.

Young was restricted to just 14 Premier League starts.

He is one of six players - Habib Beye, Nigel Reo-Coker, Curtis Davies, Steve Sidwell and Nicky Shorey are the others - who have been made available for transfer this summer by Villa, who must adopt a sell-to-buy policy this summer.

Villa, meanwhile, will refrain from rushing James Collins back into action as the injured defender fights to be fit to face West Ham on the opening day.

Collins has travelled out to Portugal with the rest of Villa's squad despite pulling up with a calf problem, just 30 seconds into Tuesday's friendly victory over Walsall.

The Welshman, who has endured a stop-start pre-season after missing the Bohemians friendly with the same problem, did not train yesterday and is a major doubt for the weekend games.

He now faces a race against time to be ready for his old club in Villa's Premier League curtain raiser a fortnight tomorrow - but the club will take a softly, softly approach.

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