Aston Villa trial for Cummings

Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Reggae Boy Omar Cummings is set to join English Premier League club Aston Villa in training this week, with the possibility of joining the club on loan from United States Major League Soccer (MLS) club champions Colorado Rapids.

Cummings will be with Villa for a two-week trial stint.

The struggling Premier Club were blanked 4-0 by Manchester City in a lopsided affair in yesterday's round of games and are desperate for more firepower up front.

Villa have scored a mere 20 goals, one of the lowest totals in the league and currently sit just three places above the relegation zone.

Cummings will get the chance to impress Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier after discussions were said to have got under way between the clubs in early December.

Colorado Rapids' managing director' Jeff Plush' divulged the details of the arrangement on the American club's official website coloradorapids.com.

"Omar is a Colorado Rapids player," Plush was quoted as saying. "We explained to Aston Villa that we would be open to discussing a loan agreement for Omar until our season starts on March 19 if it benefited Omar and the Colorado Rapids."

The American club has, however, made it clear that it would take a big offer to prise the striker from their grasp.

"It would take Aston Villa or any club making a significant offer for us to even consider transferring Omar," Plush was quoted as saying.

The club has already turned down one offer from Mexican club Necaxa in the summer.

Cummings had earlier expressed his satisfaction with being at Colorado, but was not opposed to taking opportunities elsewhere.

"I'm happy here," Cummings said. "Everyone knows that I'm happy and very comfortable being in Colorado. But if the opportunities are there to make a move, I'm also open to that.

"If the Rapids feel that it's a good opportunity for the club and for me to move on, I understand that. At the same time, as a player, you don't want to feel held back from taking that opportunity, even if it's just to see," Cummings told the Colorado Rapids website.

The 28-year-old striker, who has made 20 appearances for the national team and scored five times, was instrumental for the Rapids in their championship run last season, finding the back of the net some 14 times; as well as for his country, which retained the Digicel Caribbean Cup title in Martinique earlier this month.

Cummings scored the goal which ensured a 1-1 regulation and extra-time finish in the final against Guadeloupe, which was eventually decided in a high quality penalty shoot-out that the Jamaicans won 5-4.