£8m midfielder who snubbed Leeds United 'wanted' by Aston Villa as Blackburn Rovers man sets weekend 'test'

Leeds United continued their excellent run of post-international break form with a 3-0 win over Luton Town on Wednesday, with Daniel Farke’s side climbing back to the top of the Championship. Goals from Sam Byram, Joel Piroe and Dan James secured a sixth straight home win to pull the Whites above Burnley, Sunderland and Sheffield United.

One of the latter pair will overtake Leeds again on Friday, before the Whites face Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Saturday looking to reclaim top spot. Farke confirmed on Thursday he will make a late call on Byram, who has a slight hamstring issue, while Junior Firpo is set to return from suspension. And ahead of that away-day, the YEP has rounded up some of the latest stories surrounding the club.

Villa want ex-Leeds target

Former Leeds target Nadiem Amiri could finally be set for a move to England, with reports of interest from Aston Villa. BILD journalist Christian Falk claims Amiri is ‘on the list’ of Premier League outfit Villa, who had scouts in Germany to watch the attacking midfielder against Borussia Dortmund earlier this month.

Amiri was set to join the newly-relegated Leeds last year but after a £5million fee was agreed and the 28-year-old flew over from Bayer Leverkusen, talks broke down and he was made to organise his own transport back. And after barely featuring for Xabi Alonso’s side, he joined Mainz in January.

An impressive 11 months with his new club has evidently piqued the interest of Villa, who are thought to be keen on attacking reinforcements come January. And the report adds that Mainz will look to enter talks for around €10m (£8.3m).

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Blackburn test

Blackburn captain Lewis Travis is looking forward to a ‘good test’ against a Leeds side he considers one of the best teams in the Championship on Saturday. The midfielder managed to avoid a fifth booking of the season during Wednesday’s win at Middlesbrough and so will be available this weekend.

Leeds won’t be in first place come kick-off on Saturday but have regularly been put among the league’s top teams by opposition managers and players. And speaking ahead of Blackburn’s midweek win at the Riverside Stadium, Travis was in agreement.

“I think Middlesbrough are the team with the best form in the league at the moment,” Travis told RoversTV. “We’ll go and attack that game. We’ve had a break and we want to get that out of our system. Leeds are probably one of the best teams in the league and I think it’s good to test ourselves against those sorts of sides. We won’t play with fear, we’ll attack both games and see where we’re at.“