Aston Villa interested in signing Reading midfielder John Swift | OneFootball

Aston Villa are once again interested in signing Reading midfielder John Swift amid suggestions that contract talks have stalled between him and the Royals.

What’s the story?

The former England U21 international was the subject of intense speculation over the course of the summer transfer window back in 2020, with reports even going so far as to claim that Villa were ready to make a bid for him.

While a deal failed to materialise back then, Football League World now claim that Dean Smith’s side are one of a number of teams keeping tabs on Swift’s situation at Reading.

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It’s claimed that with the midfielder entering the final year of his contract, the Championship club have yet to agree a new deal with him, and thus opening the door to a potential move away.

Could be another John McGinn

Swift has a track record of being someone who can offer a goal-scoring threat from midfield much like McGinn has proven himself to be over the past few seasons, managing an impressive 58 goal contributions in 171 games for the club – in fact, his start to the current campaign for Reading has actually been quite incredible, netting seven in eight matches in the Championship as well as chipping in with four assists too.

Speaking back in August after a 2-1 win over Preston, Royals manager, Veljko Paunovic, said: “Now he’s back, it is important we keep him healthy and motivated as he is now because that will help us a lot.

“He is super talented and he showed an urgency that he wanted to decide the game. The first couple of passes to Azeez and Joao were fantastic vision and execution of the final pass – something we’ve missed in the past. We missed those slick combinations through the middle when we progress forward so that’s something we have to keep up.”

While McGinn has hardly been a Frank Lampard-esque midfielder in terms of his sheer number of goals – he’s contributed to 33 goals in 115 matches for Villa – he does pop up with some big goals in big games, not least scoring against the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City last season.

The £3.6m-rated Swift could offer Villa another midfielder with some of the same attacking instincts as McGinn in the engine room.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa have another exciting academy starlet in this teenager…