Aston Villa are in hot pursuit of teenage Toulouse defender Jaydee Canvot, according to reports.

Villa have been extremely limited in their business in the summer transfer window, restricted by the regulatory framework that caps their transfer outlay and wage spend.

The only permanent and immediate signings so far have been veteran goalkeeper Marco Bizot and promising young striker Zépiqueno Redmond, while Modou Kéba Cissé has been signed and loaned back to LASK. Yasin Özcan has joined Villa after signing last summer.

David Ornstein of The Athletic reports exclusively that Villa have made an official approach to Toulouse with a view to signing Canvot, 18, but were initially rebuffed by the Ligue 1 club.

France Under-20 international Canvot is from the Paris suburbs and signed for Toulouse as a youth player in 2021. He signed his first professional contract last summer and has played 1,106 minutes in 18 appearances in the French top flight. 12 of those were starts.

Canvot is a right-sided centre-back who has also been infrequently deployed in a defensive midfield role by Toulouse. We can assume Villa see him a few rungs below Ezri Konsa but certainly on the same ladder.

He has four years left on his contract and a reported fee in the region of €20 million has been mooted but no agreement has yet been reached.

After the acquisitions of Redmond and Cissé, the chase for a young player with first team experience – Canvot turns 19 next week – indicates a pattern in Villa’s strategy that’s worth exploring.

Why are Aston Villa signing young players?

Notwithstanding the increasingly obvious fact that Villa are in the midst of a difficult transfer window in general, a significant focus on younger signings at least points to the implementation of a plan.

Villa and president of football operations Monchi need to look to the future for a number of important reasons.

Whether it’s through evolution or revolution, every football club wants to tool up for constant improvement of its first team.

If we accept that as a given, Villa must find a way to unlock that opportunity within the parameters of the rules. As well as working to bring in more commercial revenue, that means a long-term strategy of spending lower transfer fees and attracting bigger ones.

In other words, it’s about finding value – consistently, deliberately, and in the knowledge that some of the players in question will be moved on before their time if they’re going to yield a decent profit.

But the hope should be that most if not all of them also deliver value in a Villa shirt. Recent transfer windows have seen Villa buy and sell some young players who’ve had the distinct whiff of ins and outs specifically for PSR purposes.

In the long run it’s better for everyone involved if selling is a consequence of a growth in value, not a paper exercise designed to get out of a hole.

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