Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur are both on the lookout for attacking reinforcements in the January transfer window.
Neither the Villans nor Spurs are currently where they want to be in the Premier League table and, as such, they are looking to bolster their ranks.
Both Villa and Tottenham are interested in Donyell Malen, who has slipped down the pecking order at Borussia Dortmund.
Now, Sky Sports News have reported that the Villans have taken another step forward in pursuit of the Dutch forward.
Aston Villa increase Donyell Malen bid to around £21m
According to journalist Lyall Thomas, Aston Villa have increased their offer for Donyell Malen and are now getting closer to Dortmund’s valuation of the player.
Thomas, speaking on Sky Sports News, said a source told him Villa’s latest offer for Malen is around £21million.
Dortmund are currently demanding a fee closer to £21million and negotiations continue, added Thomas.
Villa certainly seem to be well ahead of Tottenham in the race for Malen.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Spurs were discussing internally whether to enter strongly into the conversation for Malen.
Meanwhile, the Villans are in active talks with the relevant parties, reportedly submitting offers, and player-side talks are said to be at the final stages.
Whoever signs Malen would be getting themselves a player in his prime who teammate Mario Gomez has deemed “extremely fast and very dangerous”.
The Bundesliga website, which carried Gomez’s quotes, also compared Malen to Chelsea and Belgium icon Eden Hazard.
‘Malen is almost the complete package when you think of a modern-day forward,’ they wrote of the versatile forward.
‘Malen combines his incredible speed and technical ability on the ball with an eye for goal and aptitude for defensive work, which have endeared him to the Dortmund faithful.
‘Standing at 5’8″, Malen is no big man up front, but rather a forward who prefers to run in behind to get defenders chasing him, or come short to link up with players around him.
‘In that sense he is reminiscent of Chelsea great Eden Hazard, whose squat dribbling style and long-range shooting made him a nightmare for defenders.’