Is David Villa heading for the Premier League? Well, there's good news and bad news...

By Guillem Balague

Published 06:00 20/11/09

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Premier League clubs keeping tabs on David Villa have received a mix of good and bad news about the Valencia striker.

Villa’s goalscoring statistics with the Spanish national team keep getting better (0.62 goals per game in 54 games) and are unrivalled by any player from the leading international sides over the same period: making him a candidate for the most in-form striker in world football right now.

It’s easy to see why the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City are chasing him. The good news for those clubs is that after rejecting the notion of playing abroad in the past, David Villa is having a change of heart.

He has had long chats with close friends of his in England – including players and journalists - and has decided that if Chelsea or Manchester United were to make a new bid for him, then for the first time he would seriously consider accepting their offer.

The situation regarding Manchester City is a little different: Villa still has reservations about them, despite Eastlands officials doing their utmost to convince his entourage that their ambitious project is secure and that the club is taking big steps in the right direction.

However, the bad news for Villa’s English suitors is that they have all been told that Real Madrid may have already have reached an agreement with Valencia last summer, with a deal in place to sell Villa to Madrid in the summer of 2010.

Despite the fact that Florentino Pérez denies that such a deal exists, Valencia’s lack of any urgency in the matter - when they have to sell the player to pay off their crippling debts – combined with their rejection of a €50 million package from Barcelona last June, raises doubts over the denial from Madrid.

With the Premier League’s three financial big hitters involved, along with Real Madrid and Barcelona, this transfer saga is set to be the transfer tale of the season.

David Villa profile: 10 things you need to know - plus video of him in action  

Gulliem Balague's column appears in association with www.icons.com