Out-of-sorts Kiyotake back on the radar?

Hiroshi Kiyotake, the Japanese playmaker who dazzled in his first season in the Bundesliga but has struggled to find the same form this term, is back on the Villa radar, according to rumblings coming out of Japan.

1. FC Nürnberg have really struggled this season, languishing one off the bottom of the league and have managed to amass just eleven points while Kiyotake's alarming drop off in form is thought by many to be part of the problem rather than the solution.

Last season the midfield wizard was second only to Franck Ribery in Germany in providing assists while this season he's only managed four so far and only weighed in with two goals.

The Nuremberg club's hierarchy are looking to shake things up in the window and have already offloaded Alexander Esswein to FC Ausberg and brought in talented Czech midfielder Ondřej Petrák as they desperately strive to preserve their Bundesliga status.

Paul Lambert is a keen follower of the German game and will be fully aware of both Kiyotake's skills and form slump and may need to prise Randy's wallet open to finance a deal having spunked a big chunk of his limited budget on the now incapacitated Libor Kozák in the summer.

While Kiyotake's first loyalties will be to find his form and help his German club out of the hole they are in, he'll also have one eye on retaining his place with Japan in the upcoming FIFA World Club and will have noticed that playmaker rival Keisuke Honda has secured a new lease of footballing life with a move to AC Milan.

1. The villamad.co.uk news minions will do some more digging on this as soon as we've finished mocking up photos of Defour at Birmingham Airport and writing jokes about Karren Brady's tits.