It's believed Villa offered £6m to try to land the England striker but Steve Bruce was determined to hang on to him.
But in what turned out to be a busy last day of the transfer
window – the opposite to what Bruce had predicted – three players left the JJB Stadium.

And there was almost a revamp of the forward line as Latics made a move for Manchester United striker Fraizer Campbell.
But the 20-year-old joined Tottenham on loan as part of the £30.75m deal which took Dimitar Berbatov to Old Trafford.

That, in turn, meant the collapse of a proposed move to Stoke City for
Henri Camara, as Latics did not want to be short of cover in attack.
The three players to leave were Carlo Nash, Antoine Sibierski and Rachid Bouaouzan.

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But Latics hanging on to Heskey was a major boost after Villa came in with a bid yesterday afternoon.
Tottenham were also sniffing around the 30-year-old striker as many clubs decided to leave it until the last hours of the window to do some shopping.

Bruce was loathe to lose Heskey as he has struck up a promising partnership with Amr Zaki at the start of the campaign.
The player was happy to stay with Latics ahead of training with the England squad today for the World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Croatia.

On the departure front, goalkeeper Nash joined Everton for a small fee, signing a two-year contract at Goodison Park with the option of a third year.

The 34-year-old played just one competitive game for Latics in more than a year at the JJB, last week's Carling Cup win over Notts County.
It looks likely Bruce will bring in former Birmingham keeper Richard Kingson as Nash's replacement.

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