Villa ready to offer escape for Fulham striker
Published 22:28 11/12/11 By James Nursey
Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish is ready to offer Bobby Zamora a way out of Fulham.
The England striker was axed from the Cottagers’ squad at Swansea amid his icy relationship with boss Martin Jol. And with Euro 2012 next summer, Zamora, 30, is set to review his future in January as he needs to be playing.
Villa chief Big Eck is a huge fan of the hitman after trying to take him to Birmingham in 2010.
He had a £5million bid rejected, before Zamora signed a £50,000-a-week deal at Fulham instead.
Fulham boss Jol claimed Zamora was still in his plans. He said: “Bobby still in your plans? I need all my players.
“We’ve got an important game in Europe on Wednesday and Bryan Ruiz is not going to play and we have a few little injuries.
“Zamora is probably not the player who is the best substitute, so I thought I would wait for next week and the important games.”
McLeish wants a new striker, central midfielder and back-up right-back in January.
He hopes to make room on Villa's huge wage bill by listening to offers for big-earning trio Stiliyan Petrov, Stephen Ireland and Carlos Cuellar.
Villa want to reduce their average first team wage from £57,000-a-week to £46,000-a-week as revealed by MirrorFootball on October 8.
Midfield targets include Newcastle's Danny Guthrie, 24, who is out of contract in July 2012.
