Villa lead the chase for Wolves' Bakary Sako

Tim Sherwood's side look to have edged ahead of rivals Albion in the race to sign the 26-year-old, who is available on a Bosman free transfer this summer.

Wolves' chances of keeping the Mali international have receded along with their play-off hopes, although boss Kenny Jackett maintains the club could yet persuade him to stay.

But the lure of joining the FA Cup finalists is a big carrot, especially as they look favourites to win their relegation battle.

While Sako's ambition has always been to play in the Premier League, he has never wanted to join a top-flight club that looks to be relegated.

But with Villa looking like they are going to be safe, Sako's head appears to have been turned.

As a Championship club, it's understood Wolves wouldn't be prepared to match Sako's current £25,000-a-week wages, but that would be small beer to Villa.

Albion had a £2m bid rejected for Sako in January, when QPR and an un-named foreign also made offers when Villa were linked.

Meanwhile, Jackett admits Wolves will look to their November nightmare as the root cause if their play-off hopes are ended this weekend.

Wolves go to Wigan on Saturday needing to win and hoping Ipswich and Brentford lose against Nottingham Forest at home and Reading away respectively to have a chance of grabbing a top-six spot.

But if they do miss out this season, the Molineux head coach has no doubts where they slipped up – the five straight defeats in November and December when they conceded 16 goals and dropped to 13th.

"I don't think we're short in any particular areas, but I'm sure we'll look at November if we don't go up," said Jackett.