Monday, January 10, 2022 at 07:07• Mart van Mourik • Last update: 07:07

Anwar El Ghazi’s name has been dropped during talks between Aston Villa and Everton, Fabrizio Romano knows. The transfer market expert wrote on Twitter on Sunday evening that the Villans speaking with the club from Liverpool about Lucas Digne. During the conversation, it emerged that Villa wants to use the Dutch winger as part of a swap deal, but for the time being Everton does not seem to want to cooperate.

Romano knows Villa has been working ‘for days’ to get Digne loose from the Toffees. The club, where manager Steven Gerrard is at the helm, has been on pole position for some time to sign the Frenchman. There is still no agreement between the two clubs about a transfer. The Italian journalist also reports that Villa has thought of adding El Ghazi to the deal, but Everton seems only interested in money. “Next week will be key”, Romano concludes with a cliffhanger.

Aston Villa have been working for days to sign Lucas Digne. They’ve always been frontrunners – Chelsea out of the race ???? #AVFC Talks on, not 100% agreed yet between clubs. El Ghazi also been discussed – nothing agreed on this point as Everton want cash. Next week will be key. pic.twitter.com/4AHBRXiYal

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 9, 2022

Last football season, El Ghazi scored 10 goals in 28 Premier League appearances. The wing attacker was also in the European Championship pre-selection of the Dutch, but ultimately did not survive the selection. The current season is more unfortunate for El Ghazi, who only scored a total of 383 minutes in nine league games. In those matches, the former Ajax player scored once and provided an assist.