Aston Villa Transfer Rumors: Villa's Alan Hutton Backup-Plan

(Check out SBNation.com for all of the latest transfer deadline rumors and news.)

Sky Sports has a story up about Aston Villa's interest in 30-year-old Hamburger SV defender Guy Demel. The Ivory Coast international had a brief spell with Arsenal a decade ago and has spent the past ten years in the Bundesliga, first with Borussia Dortmund and for the last six seasons with his current club. This was making the rounds a lot yesterday afternoon but Sky are the first mainstream source to report on the rumor, adding that his agent has claimed to be in talks with several clubs in England. The general buzz seems to be that Demel would be available on a free, but even if that is not the case it's tough to imagine he'd cost a whole lot.

Hutton seems like it's close to being done, so the odds of this actually happening seem pretty slim. I'll admit to not knowing a whole lot about Demel, but folks with a lot more knowledge of the Bundesliga than I claim he's wanted to move to England for several years without any takers. I would like to see some depth brought in defensively and if Demel's wages aren't too prohibitive this might actually be preferable to Hutton, but I get the feeling that McLeish has already gotten his man.