Villa, Manchester City favour permanent deal for Sinclair

A report from the Birmingham Mail's Mat Kendrick seems to have confirmed Aston Villa's interest in frozen-out Manchester City winger Scott Sinclair, with both clubs favouring a permanent deal rather than a season-long loan move.

With the English champions anxious to get the 25-year-old winger off of their books, Kendrick suggested that the fee might be £3 million or less. He moved to the Etihad from Swansea in August 2012 for around £8 million after a set of dazzling performances for the Welsh side in their promotion-winning and debut Premier League campaigns.

It's tough to formulate too many ideas here about this move to be honest, if it were to go through. Villa have been linked with Sinclair for a while but now it's finally looking like those links might be a little more concrete.

Sinclair's wages might still be a bit of an issue — a Google search tells me that he's rumoured to be making between £40,000 and £45,000 per week — and with 18 months still on his deal at the Etihad, it's possible that the player would rather earn wages than play first-team football.

However, much like Tom Cleverley at the start of the year, Sinclair is a player that's rapidly approaching the prime of his career and is marooned at a club that he's just not good enough to play at. He's managed all of 29 minutes of football this year but is still a guy that scored 35 goals in 90 appearances for Swansea City prior to his move.

If it's cheap — and Kendrick seems to insinuate that it would be — I think I'd like this move for Villa. It gives the side some more width and a player that's shown the ability to score in the past, though his inability to break into the West Bromwich Albion squad last year while on a season-long loan is a little concerning.

And while we all would prefer someone who's currently seeing match action, such players are going to be too cost-prohibitive for Villa in the window. By making a cut-rate deal for a player that's out of favour, Villa increase the odds of getting a bit of a bargain, rather than paying the silly kind of money that the winter transfer window often sees.

Want Sinclair in? Think Villa could spend their money better? Let us know in the comments!