Villa poised to launch renewed bid for Davis

ALEX McLeish is ready to make a new bid to lure Rangers midfielder Steven Davis back to Aston Villa when the transfer window opens next month.

McLeish is in the market for a new midfielder with on-loan Tottenham playmaker Jermaine Jenas set to miss the rest of the season with a ruptured Achilles after he was injured against Manchester United last Saturday.

Villa tried to sign Davis last summer but Rangers blocked their approach for the Northern Ireland international. But McLeish remains a huge admirer of Davis and appears poised to test Rangers’ resolve again.

He plans transfer talks with Villa’s owner Randy Lerner and chief executive Paul Faulkner and the former Rangers manager said: “We will keep assessing what is happening out there.

“Again, as I keep saying, we have got to trade carefully but I know Randy and Paul are right behind us if there is an opportunity for us to do something,”

Davis started his career at Villa before joining Fulham for £4m in July 2007. He moved to Rangers the following summer, after an initial loan spell, for £3m. In July he signed a new five-year contract at Ibrox.

Meanwhile, Rangers director of football Gordon Smith is standing by his views on simulation as Sone Aluko prepares to fight a two-match ban.

Smith was keen to crack down on diving in the game when he was chief executive of the Scottish Football Association.

On Tuesday, Rangers rejected a fixed suspension for Aluko, who won a penalty in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Dunfermline, and the case will be heard by the SFA’s fast track tribunal today.

Smith said yesterday: “If the player is guilty of simulation I would have no problems with him being banned for it.

“I didn’t bring it in to protect certain people. But I did realise at the time it would have to be clear cut, that there would be scenarios where players would be mildly touched.

“I did think it would have to be a case almost of no contact whatsoever had to be proved.”

If found guilty, Aluko will miss Clydesdale Bank Premier League games against Hibernian and Inverness.

Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston said: “If Aluko does get banned it does not help us in any way.

“What it would do is help the other teams in the bottom half of the league.

“This was an occasion when the ref got it wrong. If the ref had seen it the other way Aluko would have been booked and would not get a ban.

“He should have been yellow carded and that would have been it.”

Referee Steve Conroy, who was in charge for the Rangers-Dunfermline match, will act as a fourth official at Parkhead on Saturday as Celtic host Hearts.