French side Angers eye January move for Aston Villa striker Jonathan Kodjia

Reports on the continent claim the Ligue 1 outfit, with whom Kodjia spent the 2014-15 season, are keen on taking him back on loan for the rest of the season.

Kodjia, who joined Villa from Bristol City in 2016 in a deal worth £15million, is the club’s second top scorer this term with six goals.

But the form of Tammy Abraham means he has often had to make do with a place on the bench and has started only two of Villa’s last nine Championship fixtures.

Reports claim Angers have already made contact with Kodjia’s representatives, though a deal remains some way off.

It is also uncertain whether Villa, still pushing for promotion from the Championship, will be prepared to let him depart this month.

Kodjia is one of several players who could appear in a behind-closed-doors friendly tomorrow, which has been organised to give players currently out of the starting XI some much-needed playing time.

Mile Jedinak is also expected to play, with boss Smith hopeful the midfielder could be fit enough to feature in Saturday’s home game with Ipswich. The 34-year-old has not played since September due to injury.

Villa host Ipswich aiming to halt a winless run at home which now stands at six games after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Hull.

Smith said: “We’ve got to win games at home, we said that at the start. I’ve only felt defeat here once (Leeds) in the league.

“We’re giving it everything. There have certainly been too many draws here, but we’ve shown a lot of character to come from behind here - we went a goal down against Birmingham, two goals down against Nottingham Forest and 2-0 down on Saturday.

“The lads have shown that they’ve got the character, but it’s the quality that we need to go on and win games that we start with.

“The first 10 minutes here was lift off for us to dominate the first half, but we allowed a couple of mistakes to effect us too much.”