Aston Villa target ambitious January moves for two former Chelsea stars
Villa are exploring ambitious moves for Tammy Abraham and Conor Gallagher this month in a bid to keep their excellent season on track.
Unai Emery is a long-time admirer of both players and has them on a list of targets to strengthen his squad heading into a huge second half of the campaign.
Neither deal would be straightforward and could depend on Villa reaching an agreement with Liverpool to terminate the loan of Harvey Elliott earlier than planned.
Abraham, who scored 26 goals while on loan from Chelsea to help Villa win promotion from the Championship in the 2018-19 season, is currently on a season-long loan at Besiktas from Roma.
The Turkish club have an obligation to buy the 28-year-old at the end of the season for £11.2m if certain conditions are met, meaning negotiations would be complex.
Abraham has twice come close to joining Villa permanently before, first in 2021 and then again in 2023 during Emery’s first summer at the club, with the latter deal being scuppered when the striker suffered a serious injury.
Former Albion loanee Gallagher, meanwhile, joined Atletico Madrid from Chelsea for £38m in the summer of 2024.
Villa, who are again operating under tight financial restrictions, are exploring the possibility of a loan move for the midfielder though it is not yet clear whether the Spanish club would be open to an approach.
Saturday’s 2-1 FA Cup win at Tottenham means Villa, who sit third in the Premier League, are still fighting on three fronts and Emery is desperate to avoid the kind of tail-off suffered two seasons ago which saw his team creep over the line to secure a top-four finish.
Midfielder Boubacar Kamara is being assessed for the knee injury suffered early in Saturday’s victory.
