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Aston Villa are being linked with moves for three different players as new boss Alex McLeish tries to calm doubts over his ability to successfully manage the club with some shrewd transfer business.

The top-half regulars - who are 1.98 to finish above the halfway mark again in Big Eck's first season in charge - have money to spend after pocketing a rumoured £20 million for England winger Ashley Young from Manchester United, and are thought to have made plans to reinvest £14 million of it.

The most pressing concern is to find a new goalkeeper following Brad Friedel's decision to join Tottenham after his contract expired and luckily signing shot-stoppers is McLeish's area of expertise having guided first Joe Hart and then Ben Foster to Birmingham in his time there.

His solution on this occasion is believed to be to provide Shay Given with a route out of Manchester City after the Irish custodian failed to make a Premier League start last term for the FA Cup winners, with a fee in the region of £4 million expected to be enough to drag him out of the wilderness.

Another area in need of strengthening is at right back after their first-choice in that position in the final months of the previous campaign, Kyle Walker, returned to Tottenham and penned a new deal. His Spurs team-mate Alan Hutton could provide the answer to that problem for a sum of around £5 million.

The most interesting Villa link though, and an addition that would really show that their ambition to again compete towards the top of the table remains undimmed, is to capture reported Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool target Scott Parker.

The West Ham midfielder and England regular is expected to leave the 5.7 Championship joint-favourites for Premier League football to improve his prospects of a place in the Euro 2012 squad but there has been a surprising lack of progress in finding him a new home so far.

Spurs are considered to be the FWA Footballer of the Year's preferred destination, however Villa are said to be keen to exploit claims that the Lilywhites must sell before they buy with a £5 million bid.

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