Sport

Villa put bid for Gascoigne on hold

Aston Villa will put their attempts to sign Paul Gascoigne on the back-burner until the end of next week

Fri Oct 17 1997 - 01:00

Aston Villa will put their attempts to sign Paul Gascoigne on the back-burner until the end of next week. Manager Brian Little is interested in bringing Gascoigne to Villa Park in a £4 million deal, and is believed to have tabled a bid.

But any possible switch from Glasgow Rangers for the England midfielder will not happen until Villa have returned from their UEFA Cup second round first leg trip to Atletico Bilbao on Wednesday.

Little is believed to have asked Rangers to be kept informed while away in Europe about any developments as to whether Gascoigne, whose agent, Mel Stein, is currently away on holiday, will decide to return south of the border.

Rangers chairman David Murray has opened the way for Gascoigne to leave, saying the club will not stand in his way should the player decide to return.

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Villa are not the only option, Spurs and Everton have also been linked with Gascoigne.

But Villa remain the favourites - Little was clearly disturbed by his side's performance in Wednesday's 3-0 defeat at West Ham in the League Cup, when they were toothless in attack and lacking the necessary ammunition from midfield for Stan Collymore, Savo Milosevic and Dwight Yorke.

Meanwhile, Alex Ferguson has confirmed what is, clearly, something more than a passing interest in the Chilean international striker Jose Marcello Salas whilst insisting he had most definitely not agreed to meet a reported asking price of £13 million.

Ferguson described as "totally untrue" suggestions that his desperation to bring to Old Trafford a forward of proven ability had manifested itself in an official bid for the 21-year-old who currently plays his football in Argentina with River Plate. Speculation that Ferguson was ready to act mounted after it was revealed that his assistant Brian Kidd had travelled to Santiago last week to assess Salas' true worth.

As Kidd looked on admiringly, Salas scored a hat-trick in Chile's 4-0 victory over Peru. "Yes, Brian Kidd was there to see him score three times", said Ferguson. "He has goals in him - that's for sure. But, I must stress, that we have definitely not tabled any bid and certainly not one of £13 million. What we will almost certainly do is to continue to monitor closely his progress.

"We are interested in him but, at the moment, we have made no official move at all," he added.