Aston Villa Pursuing Belgian Powerhouse

And the hits keep comin'! Minutes after word broke that Aston Villa have reportedly made an offer for Charlton Athletic midfielder Dale Stephens, Mat Kendrick brings us a much bigger piece of transfer gossip; Paul Lambert is heavily pursuing 21-year-old Belgium international and K.R.C. Genk striker Christian Benteke. Benteke has scored three three in five games so far this season and his first senior international goal -quite an impressive one at that- came in a 4-2 win for Belgium over the Netherlands on August 15th.

The 6'3", 180 lb striker would certainly offer a different skillset than currently possessed by any of Villa's current strike force; for all of his skill in front of goal, Darren Bent is most decidedly not a target forward and he's well behind Benteke in terms of strength. Were I given the choice of the kind of striker I'd like Villa to target, a very tall guy made of solid muscle with good positional sense and a nice longer-range shot would be pretty close to the top of the list.

This isn't yet a done deal of course, but for Kendrick to report it is a clear signal that it's for real. I'd still put a higher priority on someone capable of improving the quality of supply into the box, but as a consolation prize this looks quite lovely. And of course, there's still nearly a week left before the window closes; maybe we can have both!