Aston Villa are closing in on Curtis Davies, the West Bromwich Albion captain, after being given permission to start talks with the England Under-21 player.

Villa are understood to be on the verge of agreeing a deal within the region of £9 million for Davies although West Brom insist speculation that everything has already been sorted is wide of the mark.

Tony Mowbray, the West Brom manager, confirmed: "We've given Curtis permission to speak to Aston Villa but the deal is not concluded and is ongoing . We'll wait and see if anything gets concluded.

"But the bottom line is Curtis hasn't contributed at all for us this season and, if he goes, we'll just get on with what we've been doing."

Davies has not been involved in any of Albion's opening four Coca-Cola Championship matches or the Carling Cup and is desperate to rejoin a Barclays Premier League club.

The former Luton Town player, who has also interested Tottenham Hotspur, had a transfer request rejected by West Brom earlier in the summer.

West Brom, who lost in the Championship play-off final to Derby in May, have already seen stars Jason Koumas and Diomansy Kamara leave the club.

If the deal goes through quickly enough, Davies could even be involved for Villa in Sunday's home league clash with Chelsea.