The £11m release clause race against time Newcastle United and Aston Villa club are chasing

Today is the day. Like an outlet furniture sale that 'MUST END MONDAY', interested parties have until this evening to successfully secure a bargain deal for AS Roma attacker Paulo Dybala. Unlike an outlet furniture sale, however, this is not a promotional ploy designed to induce faux panic in the more parsimonious reaches of a clientele. Once the Argentine's release clause expires at the stroke of midnight, it really does expire.

For reasons that nobody has cared to explain, Dybala is available for just £11 million this month - but only until January 15th, and only to clubs outside of Serie A. Naturally, as you might imagine, this has caused quite the stir.

According to various reports, several Premier League clubs are considering bids for the Argentine, with adjectives such as 'sensational' and 'stunning' thrown around like scattered grains in a chicken coop. Newcastle United are said to be in the running, as are Aston Villa, while Chelsea - somewhat unsurprisingly - have also been touted as prospective suitors.

Of that trio, Italian outlet Corriere Della Sera claim that Newcastle are the most interested in Dybala, with the Magpies heavily weighing up the notion of a contract-busting bid. Eddie Howe's men, like a long-sighted bookworm with a library card and a shattered pair of spectacles, find themselves in the unenviable position of boasting all the resources in the world while having no tangible way of putting them to any use. The pesky blighters at Financial Fair Play HQ continue to bind the club's Saudi owners, and as such, in spite of their incalculable wealth, Newcastle need to find ways of rejuvenating their injury-torn squad without spending big this winter. You can see why Dybala, at his heavily-reduced asking price, appeals.

There are obstacles to navigate, however. It is understood that the 30-year-old's wages in Rome come in at around £183,000 per week, and given the restrictions to which the Magpies must abide, that could pose a problem. Indeed, despite his lowered valuation, Corriere Della Sera suggest that Newcastle may still have to sell one of their crown jewels - the likes of Sven Botman, Bruno Guimaraes, or Alexander Isak - to fund a deal for Dybala. The chances of that happening, especially in the next twelve hours or so, feel incredibly slim.

Perhaps then, the door could be opened for Aston Villa. Certainly, Unai Emery's men are in a more favourable position, financially speaking, to force through a deal, and the sudden explosion of the Spaniard's project at Villa Park makes them an attractive prospect. With 17 games left to play, they are just two points adrift of Premier League leaders Liverpool, and at this stage of the campaign, they are not only in the race for a top four finish, but must be respected as legitimate title contenders.

To that end, persuading Dybala might not be all that difficult, hypothetically at least. After all, this is a player who came within a whisker of moving to the Premier League not too long ago, only barely missing out on a transfer to Tottenham Hotspur in 2019 due to an eleventh hour dispute over image rights.

But whether a deal can be concluded before that staggeringly low release clause expires remains to be seen. You suspect that if anybody was serious about triggering it, they would have done so much sooner than this.