Friday 17 January 2020 12:52, UK
Aston Villa are interested in signing Leicester City striker Islam Slimani, who is currently at Monaco on loan, while Mbwana Samatta is close to completing a deal with the Premier League club.
Samatta is due to undergo a medical in Birmingham over the weekend, while Villa's bosses process the necessary paperwork to apply for a work permit.
A fee of around £8.5m was agreed with Genk on Thursday.
The Slimani deal is more complicated, from Villa's perspective. He is currently on a season-long loan with Monaco, and so Villa would need agreement from both them and Leicester for a new loan deal to be sanctioned.
Those problems are not insurmountable, however - Slimani scored in Monaco's 3-3 draw with Paris Saint-Germain last weekend - but he has made only 11 starts in Ligue 1 this season.
Meanwhile, Villa's Jonathan Kodjia is in Qatar where Al Gharafa have said publicly he will undergo a medical on Friday.
However, that transfer will only be sanctioned once Villa are certain they have a striker ready to replace him.
