Burnley look to land Villa defender Baker

The 24-year-old made 13 appearances for Villa in all competitions last season, including the final day defeat at home to the Clarets, but wants more regular first team football, and, after the arrival of Micah Richards from Manchester City, could find himself further down the pecking order under Tim Sherwood this term.

Burnley, after the sale of captain Jason Shackell, are on the lookout for a central defender to compete with Michael Keane, Ben Mee and Michael Duff, with Kevin Long recovering from a cruciate knee ligament injury, and Villa are not expected to stand in Baker’s way should they receive a reasonable offer for the Worcester-born defender, who started his career as a trainee at Villa Park.

Baker, who had loan spells with Lincoln City in 2009 and Millwall in 2011, would have a familar face in the dressing room at Turf Moor should he complete a switch, with Matt Lowton also moving from Villa for an initial £1m earlier this summer.

Clarets boss Sean Dyche was typically coy on Tuesday night after the 2-0 friendly win at Fleetwood Town: “We still want to bring people in, still want to freshen, so we’re active in that.

“That’s the tough side of it at the moment, we have got money, and yet some of the deals other clubs are doing are massive for the Championship.

“But we’re still trying to support and challenge the group. We still want to reinforce, we are still at it.

“There has been a couple of deals which have gone away from us and a couple got closer, simple as that.”