The Calvin Bassey Rangers transfer raid alternative for Steven Gerrard as Hearts connection opens Aaron Hickey door

Man of the moment Calvin Bassey is catching eyes for both club and country.

He impressed for Rangers in their surge to the Europa League final and in the Scottish Cup victory, and is rounding off his campaign with some impressive showings for Nigeria.

That has seen the defender strongly linked with a move away from Ibrox to join ex-boss Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa.

The 22-year-old will likely demand a bumper transfer fee if he is to move south of the border, with several English Premier League monitoring the full-back.

However, reports south of the border suggest that Gerrard may have a back-up plan to avoid a Bassey bidding war.

Birmingham Live claim that Scotland cap Aaron Hickey is on a shortlist of left-back options that Villa are weighing up this summer.

Bologna are reportedly willing to sell this summer this summer with a valuation of between £15million being touted in Italy ahead of the window opening.

And Villa could have the inside track with Hickey from his Hearts days with former Hearts coach Austin MacPhee working as part of Gerrard's backroom team.

MacPhee was working as Craig Levein's assistant when Hickey was handed his Jambos debut aged just 16.

And since then, the full-back has only gone from strength to strength.

The 19-year-old turned out 36 times for Bologna and found the net five times during his breakthrough campaign for the Italian club.

That has seen Steve Clarke welcome Hickey into the Scotland set-up, earning two caps against Poland and Austria in the warm-up games for the Ukraine World Cup playoff.

Gerrard could look to use his Rangers connection to convince Bassey to pick his side this summer.

But if it doesn't work out, he could turn to his set-piece coach to secure plan B.