Aston Villa have made a £7million bid for want-away West Ham skipper Nigel Reo-Coker.

Villa boss Martin O'Neill has been keeping tabs on Reo-Coker, who is also captain of the England Under-21 side, for several months.

Now he has decided to firm up his interest in the former Wimbledon player who only cost the Hammers £500,000 when he signed three years ago.

Reo-Coker has also been linked strongly with a move to Newcastle in part exchange for Scott Parker who now looks bound for Upton Park.

But that deal does not look like materialising now that Joey Barton is going from Manchester City to St James' Park as a replacement for Parker.

Reo-Coker's agent Tony Finnegan has been making optimistic noises for the past few days about the player joining Villa.

At the weekend, when asked about speculation about Reo-Coker signing for Villa, he said: "What has been in the papers isn't far wrong but I don't know what will happen at the moment."

Reo-Coker believes he needs to move away from West Ham to reactivate his career after claiming that he "needs to play where he feels wanted."

He was believed to be the subject of interest from Arsenal during the January transfer window window although nothing was firmed up by the Gunners.

O'Neill has made it clear that a midfielder of Reo-Coker's qualities is amongst his priorities this summer to play alongside Stiliyan Petrov.

But, if he arrives at Villa Park, it will put further question marks over the future of Gavin McCann, who has only one year left of his contract, and Northern Ireland international Steven Davis.

O'Neill is also keeping tabs on the West Brom trio of Jason Koumas, Paul Robinson and Paul McShane and West Ham defender Luke Young