The adjective "ambitious" is not one you'd readily associate with Aston Villa, but the Star have no qualms about describing their imminent bid for Manchester United's Mexican striker Javier Hernández as exactly that. Despite uncertainty surrounding the future plans of the club's owner Randy Lerner, who has thus far refused to confirm or deny speculation that he's planning to sell his comatose giant to a consortium fronted by a couple of American billionaires, manager Paul Lambert is also being linked with Manchester City outcast Joleon Lescott and Tottenham's on-loan-at-Fulham midfielder Lewis Holtby. Having secured just one point from the last 16 available and with rumblings of extreme discontent behind the scenes emerging from Villa Park, Lambert will need to secure the club's Premier League status before attempting to lure any of the aforementioned trio to the Midlands. The beatings look likely to continue until morale improves.
Arsène Wenger has flipped down all but one of the tiles in his game of Guess Who (My Main Summer Transfer Target Is) and the short-haired, beardless, 25-year-old man left standing is Bayer Leverkusen defensive midfielder Lars Bender. German newspaper Bild reports that long-term Arsenal tease Julian Draxler will remain at Schalke for another season, but with Mikel Arteta likely to leave the Emirates this season, Wenger has been keeping a beady eye on tough-tackling Lille and Senegal midfielder Idrissa Gueye, who would cost the Gunners somewhere in the region of £5.5m. Gueye's 19-year-old team-mate Divock Origi has also got antennae twitching at Arsenal and is valued at over £10m, a fair old whack for a striker who has started just 12 league games. In other Arsenal news, the north London club are hoping to prise Loïc Rémy away from Queens Park Rangers for £12m, but are unlikely to get him that cheaply considering he's also wanted by Tottenham, Everton and Bayern Munich. Meanwhile in Greece, the club's Panini sticker-hunting, on-loan-at-Olympiakos striker Joel Campbell could return to Blighty, where he is being given the glad eye by West Brom.
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