Aston Villa FC reignite interest in Japanese International

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has really made a mark at the club since his arrival last season. The young Scottish manager surprisingly sanctioned the sale of majority of Villa’s experienced players in order to trim the club’s wage-bill and brought in younger players to nurture them into the first team.

After a difficult first season, the young Villa team seem to have become better from the experience of last year and Lambert’s men are currently occupying 11^th place in the league. However, such is the nature of the Premier League this season that a couple of defeats could see a team in the top half being sucked into the relegation mire and Lambert is well aware of the fact that his team are not far away from danger.

Therefore, the 44-year old has publicly addressed his need to strengthen the side and perhaps bring in a couple of experienced players to carefully negate the danger of being sucked into the relegation battle.

Wes Hoolahan is a name that has been linked with a move to Villa Park recently and now according to some reports, Japanese International Hiroshi Kiyotake is also a target for Paul Lambert.

The FC Nürnberg star had been a target for Villa in the summer as well but the Premier League side were unsuccessful in luring the midfielder to the club. Lambert, who is an admirer of the 24-year old, is said to be looking to try his luck once again in acquiring the services of Kiyotake.

However, Villa should be ready to stump up a sizeable bid of around £8-10 million to tempt Nürnberg to part with Kiyotake as the German side are not interested in letting their their star player leave.

Kiyotake came to prominence at Cerezo Osaka in Japan, playing an important role in helping the club reach the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League in 2011. Such performances caught the attention of Nürnberg and he eventually joined the German club last season.

The midfielder managed to impress for the club scoring 4 times and grabbing 10 assists. Kiyotake has been in impressive form this season as well, making 16 starts and scoring 2 goals. The 24-year old has been capped 22 times by the Japanese National team.