Aston Villa are one of a host of Premier League clubs who have been linked with a move for Celtic forward Daizen Maeda in the summer transfer window, having reportedly had him watched this season.

The Lions were expecting to come up against Maeda when the Bhoys visited Villa Park in the Champions League at the end of January, but he was forced to sit out that clash having been sent off in the previous game against Young Boys and was, as a consequence, suspended as Villa ran out 4-2 winners.

Still, Maeda is currently enjoying the most fruitful spell of his Celtic career; in each of his last three years he has managed to just about hit double figures, but this term he has netted 33 goals across all competitions and that run includes 12 goals in his last 11 league games alone.

Japanese international Maeda’s current Celtic contract runs until the summer of 2027 but there were reports in March that the champions were set to offer the forward new and improved terms in order to ward off interest in his services from elsewhere.

Asked earlier this season if he saw Celtic as being the club where he’d anticipate being in the long-term, Maeda was non-committal. He said: “Well, I’m not sure. That’s a difficult question. While I’m here, I always want to fight and play for Celtic. I want to keep focusing and playing for the team.”

Reports suggest that Villa are one of a number of sides who like Maeda and would be interested in concluding a deal which would bring him south of the border, along with Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

Villa will be thinking of how to proceed when it comes to refreshing their squad this summer; Marco Asensio’s and Marcus Rashford’s loan deals will expire, and Unai Emery will be keen to add depth to his forward line at any rate, having lost Jhon Duran to Al-Nassr of the Saudi Pro League in the January transfer window.