Aston Villa have the best striker tandem in the Premier League in Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran, and the two could not have more differing skill-sets when looking at Watkins’s all-around excellence and Duran’s sharpshooting.
But even with Morgan Rodgers breaking out as a versatile creator, Aston Villa are looking for more attacking firepower in their effort to get back into the top four of the Premier League, particularly with Leon Bailey slowing in 2024/25.
Donyell Malen is atop the list of transfer targets for Aston Villa, whose need for another winger only increased after the club agreed to sell Jaden Philogene to Ipswich Town this winter.
Although Malen seems to be close to a move from Borussia Dortmund to Aston Villa, a deal is not official yet, and there may be a chance a Premier League top-four rival beats them to the punch.
According to a report from German outlet BILD, Newcastle are interested in signing Malen, too, though they view him as a second choice to Brentford star Bryan Mbeumo, who may be less likely to move immediately this winter.
Since the news comes from Germany and conveniently enough at a time when Aston Villa are close to signing Malen but haggling over details with the club themselves, the cynical side of me wonders if this is news coming from Dortmund, who have been a bit underhanded in negotiations in recent years after Michael Zorc’s departure, in order to get Villa to balk to their demands, increasing BVB’s bottom line.
Aston Villa don’t need to get roped up into any bidding wars over Malen, who is a good but flawed player and ideally a rotational option for the club. Newcastle could use a right winger, but even the report is right on the money in saying that the Magpies have long been looking at other options first. If they wanted Malen that badly, they would have signed him last year.
