Fulham have registered their interest in signing Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish, according to a Daily Mirror report this morning.

Grealish, who has been heavily linked with a move away from Villa Park after Villa failed to gain promotion to the Premier League last season, had been widely tipped to make a summer move to Tottenham. Spurs opened official talks with Aston Villa last week but the report notes that chairman Daniel Levy is unwilling to match Villa’s valuation and wants to bring the price down. The Mirror claims that both Fulham and Crystal Palace have moved quickly to notify the Championship club of their interest in Grealish, saying that the Whites have been in regular contact about a possible transfer.

This isn’t the first time this summer that Fulham have been linked with a move for one of the Championship’s biggest talents. The 22 year-old midfielder starred as Villa reached the play-off and was comfortably the biggest threat to Fulham’s ultimate victory at Wembley, nearly scoring one of the greatest individual goals at the national stadium with a brilliant in the second half. Grealish, who has scored fourteen goals in 151 appearances in seven years with his boyhood club, became increasingly influential for Villa once he was switched to a central midfield role by Steve Bruce after overcoming a serious injury in the early part of last season.

The Mirror suggests that Spurs remain in the driving seat to conclude the transfer, but Fulham have proven their pedigree to pull off an ambitious deal after successfully signing Ivorian international midfielder Jean-Michael Seri from Nice last week. Grealish was expected to be one of the first departures from Villa Park in a summer fire sale after their disappointment at Wembley, but no club has tabled a bid that matches Villa’s valuation.