Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood coy over Joleon Lescott and Emmanuel Adebayor

The pair have been targets for Sherwood during the summer and the manager remained coy ahead of Tuesday's transfer deadline.

Press Association Sport understands Lescott will be allowed to leave West Brom if they bring in a replacement, and the Baggies took a step in that direction on Friday by agreeing a fee for Manchester United's Jonny Evans.

Adebayor held talks with Villa this summer before a proposed loan deal with Tottenham stalled.

"It depends how the dominoes go. Never rule it out," said Sherwood, ahead of Saturday's Barclays Premier League visit of Sunderland.

"Domino effects happen but I wouldn't like to talk about individual players. Joleon is a player who would be attractive to a lot of teams, just for what he gives you on an experience level."

West Brom boss Tony Pulis added: "It's an on-going situation. Come and see me on Tuesday at 7pm when it's all sorted out. I'm in limbo."

Villa were interested in Lescott when he left Manchester City in 2014 before moving to Albion, with the 33-year-old believed to be a boyhood Villa fan.

Sherwood also aimed a veiled dig at the Baggies, having twice missed out on the manager's job at The Hawthorns.

He said: "You always want to play for your boyhood team in the end and if you get an opportunity, fantastic, but Joleon Lescott isn't a Villa player, he's not anyone's player apart from West Brom's. I know how difficult it is to deal with West Brom.

"There's nothing lined up waiting at the gate. If something becomes available it's possible. I've seen it watching from afar, people wonder why people leave it so late. It's exactly that, the domino effect which could see something drop for us."

Sherwood is hopeful several unnamed players will recover from illness to face Sunderland while Adama Traore is carrying an ankle injury.