Aston Villa 'keeping tabs on Villarreal's Nicolas Jackson'

Aston Villa reportedly hold an interest in signing Villarreal winger Nicolas Jackson during 2023.

Last week, the West Midlands outfit announced that they had appointed Villarreal's Unai Emery as their new head coach on a long-term contract.

While the Spaniard was not in the dugout for Saturday's 4-0 defeat at the hands of Newcastle United, Emery will officially take over on Tuesday.

With Villa currently sitting just one point above the relegation zone and facing Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion before the World Cup, full focus is currently on trying to achieve results from those matches.

Nevertheless, Emery is likely to have been promised funds for the January transfer window in a bid to move Villa away from the bottom three in the Premier League standings.

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According to the Daily Mail, Villa have emerged as candidates to sign Jackson during one of the upcoming transfer windows.

Since spending time in the Villarreal youth setup, Jackson has made just 11 starts and 18 substitute outings for the first team in all competitions.

However, the 21-year-old has started to showcase his ability in recent weeks, making key contributions in wins over Austria Vienna, Osasuna and Almeria.

Although Jackson has not completed 90 minutes since the opening weekend of the season, the Senegalese is an increasingly influential member of the squad.

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The report claims that Emery is a fan of the player, who currently has less than a year remaining on his contract at the Yellow Submarine.

While that strengthens Villa's chances of negotiating a deal with the La Liga outfit, other clubs are said to be monitoring the situation.

The report suggests that Barcelona, Newcastle and Everton may also contemplate looking to win the race for Jackson at the turn of the year.

Despite having yet to earn a senior cap for his country, Jackson featured in the national squad in September and is in contention to be selected for the World Cup.