Taylor confused by PSV’s signals

Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor has urged PSV Eindhoven to make up their minds over whether they want to sell winger Dennis Rommedahl.

Taylor had a bid for the £10m-rated (€15.5m) Denmark international rejected before the World Cup with PSV insisting that the player was not for sale.

But Taylor is puzzled as to why the Dutch giants have now made public Villa’s interest in the player if they have no desire to sell him.

Taylor admitted ‘‘We put in a bid for Rommedahl within a month of me becoming manager at Villa again.

‘‘What they told us was that the player was not for sale. Now they seem to have changed their minds.

‘‘They chose to release the fact that we were interested but it was a deal I wanted to do before the World Cup. Whether they are now trying to sell him, I don’t know.

‘‘Looking carefully at what PSV have said, all they’ve done is release the news that Aston Villa made a bid for him. They’re not saying he’s actually for sale. Why do that three months after we went in for him?

‘‘Perhaps he is available now but they may want a higher price for him. I believe that Rommedahl has a release clause for 2003 in his contract. But we were told very definitely that he was not for sale.’’

Taylor is keen to hold onto transfer-seeking midfielder George Boateng with whom he is hoping to hold talks within the next few days if the Dutch international agrees to return to England.

But, if that fails, then the Villa boss is understood to be viewing another Denmark player in Everton’s Thomas Gravesen - valued at around £4m (€6.2m) - as a possible replacement.

Japan’s Shinji Ono and South Africa’s Macbeth Sibaya are also understood to be on Taylor’s hit list.

He admitted: ‘‘Ono is as good a player as we’ve seen at the World Cup and Sibaya is one of the few players still in South Africa - but I don’t think he’ll be there for very long.’’