Vlaar: In England for talks

It is understood the 27-year-old defender was in Birmingham on Sunday for talks with the club, after being given permission to travel by the Rotterdam giants.

Villa have a good working relationship with Feyenoord and have already lured Karim El Ahmadi from De Kuip this summer.

Now Paul Lambert is trying to agree a deal in the tregion of £8million for Vlaar - who featured at Euro 2012 for Holland.

The central defender, who still has two years left on his current deal, is now set to consider whether to leave Holland for the first time in his career.

"Of course I will think about it, you have to for it to get this far, but it would be a difficult choice," he told AD Sportwereld .