Aston Villa 'keeping tabs' on Man City player Pep Guardiola raved about

Aston Villa are reportedly keeping an eye on contract discussions between Manchester City starlet James McAtee and the club.

McAtee has been linked with a move to Villa with their Premier League rivals Brighton and Hove Albion and Leicester City also credited with an interest in the player.

The Daily Mail report that McAtee rejected the chance to leave the Etihad Stadium on loan in the January window despite Rangers and Championship trio Swansea City, Bournemouth, Huddersfield Town asking about taking the player on for the rest of the season.

McAtee is highly-rated at City and made his debut for Pep Guardiola's side earlier this season in a 6-1 thrashing of Wycombe Wanderers in the Carabao Cup back in September.

The 19 year-old, dubbed the "Salford David Silva", appeared in the Premier League for the first time in November when he came on for Cole Palmer in a 3-0 defeat of Everton.

McAtee is under contract until the end of next season and the Mail report that talks with City are 'positive' with Pep Guardiola a fan of the player.

Turning 20 in October, McAtee has been banging the goals in from midfield for City's youth sides with 19 goals in 23 matches this season.

Villa were well-stocked in midfield and have young players of their own hoping to make it into Steven Gerrard 's first-team with Carney Chukwuemeka and Tim Iroegbunam pushing to become part of the squad.

Guardiola lavished praise on McAtee, who Villa are unlikely to sign, and his team-mates after the Everton game.

"All of us believe, we have a good generation of four, five or six players with quite a good potential to help us," he said.

“We have exceptional players in the academy, I am not shy to use them. If they are good, they are going to get an