Gary Cahill

Bolton Wanderers have failed with a £4m bid for Aston Villa's former England under-21 centre-half Gary Cahill.

Cahill, 22, had been targeted by rival Premier League clubs, Birmingham City, Derby County and Wigan.

And Bolton boss Gary Megson, with money to spend following the £15m sale of Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea, has become the latest to make an offer.

Cahill is understood to favour staying with Villa because team-mate Olof Mellberg's future is uncertain.

He has not played for the club since last August, but impressed while out on loan at Sheffield United in the autumn and Blades boss Bryan Robson has made it clear that they would like him to return.

But a permanent move would probably be out of their price range and Villa boss Martin O'Neill would not want to lose Cahill with less than week to go before the window closes and rumours surrounding Mellberg's future growing by the day.

"Gary did very well at Sheffield United and they would dearly love him back," O'Neill told BBC West Midlands on Friday.

"In an ideal world that would be great, but he has used up his 90-odd days and if he went back [on loan], we wouldn't be able to recall him.

"Other permanent offers have come in for him which I've discounted because Gary was saying he didn't want to commit himself to anything permanent until the summer - if at all."

Despite his purchase this season of Curtis Davies and Zat Knight, O'Neill has always insisted that he is no great hurry to sell Cahill, especially with Mellberg, already lined up as an end of season target for Juventus, possibly set to depart in the next week.