Cardiff City and Watford join five-team transfer race to sign Aston Villa starlet

Three more Championship clubs are said to have entered the race to sign Aston Villa midfielder Lamare Bogarde on loan.

Bogarde returned to Villa Park this week after his season-long loan at Bristol Rovers was cut short. It was reported that Villa had always wanted to recall him when the January transfer window opened and planned to loan him out to a Championship team.

Yesterday, both Aberdeen and Sunderland had been attributed with interest, and now there's another team in the mix. Football Insider reports that Cardiff City, along with Southampton and Watford are interested too. The Saints were said to be interested in Bogarde in the summer and had considered him as a replacement for Romeo Lavia, who joined Chelsea for £58m.

First-team minutes is important to Villa, and their transfer committee will now have to decide what is the best destination for one of their highly-rated academy players. He is unlikely to feature against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup, as FIFA rules dictate that you cannot play for more than two teams in one season.

Meanwhile, Bristol Rovers manager Matt Taylor has wished Bogarde well after departing the Memorial Stadium. Bogarde played just one game under Taylor after they sacked Joey Barton, and didn't put up a fight to keep hold of one of their loan players.

Speaking on his recall to BristolWorld, Gas boss Taylor said: "When I came in to the club five or six weeks ago now he'd been involved to a certain extent but not consistently. I wasn't able to give it to him? Did I see enough in that time to give him that opportunity? Probably not. He's gone back with our best wishes.

"Same as with any player. When you're on loan even more so from a Premier League club you probably expect to be getting more opportunities but you've got to really fight for the chance to play for the shirt at Bristol Rovers. We just feel he didn't quite fit in to the dynamic that has worked for us over the last few weeks.