Villa close in on Cahill

Taylor is lining up a £3.5 million bid for the Australian following Cahill's outstanding season with The Lions last term as the South London side made the Division One play-offs.

Boateng requested to be transfer-listed in May and Middlesbrough seem ready to make a bid of £5 million for the 27-year-old as the Riverside club look to replace the departing former England captain Paul Ince in the centre of midfield.

The 22-year-old Cahill has been a target of Taylor's since Boateng refused to travel home with his Villa team-mates following the club's end-of-season victory at Chelsea.

Villa have initially rated the former Feyenoord and Coventry City player at £7 million and chairman Doug Ellis is determined to make a profit from the £4.5 million The Villans paid the Highfield Road side for the Dutchman in July 1999.

Taylor said: "While George insists he wishes to leave, for reasons of his own which are not entirely clear, he is grafting away and making a monkey of all that talk about him going on strike.

"The right sort of bid will be given serious consideration."