Matt Holland's agent Jonathan Barnett says the proposed deal to take his player to Aston Villa is now dying with no new developments looking likely.

Barnett said today: "There's no discussions or anything planned. I'd say it's dying."

Previously Barnett, Villa and Holland had all suggested that further negotiations may take place but now this is looking less and less likely.

Villa manager Graham Taylor seems resigned to failure, citing Matt's lack of desire to leave his East Anglian home as the main stumbling block: "It's not totally dead but it's looking that way.

"He's been offered more money than he's got at Ipswich, but after a long chat with him my feeling is that it's going to be difficult to move him out of what is a very satisfactory life for him.

"That's not meant as criticism of Matt in any way because if it was simply just about money I'm not so certain that I would have wanted him to come anyhow.

"So we're going to have to do well to convince him. It's not yet dead, but it looks as if it's dying. He is a sensible fella looking at the quality of life that he's got now, and saying: Do I really want to uproot what I've got?"

Holland, along with Marcus Bent, is again linked with Fulham in today's papers.

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls