January 28, (THEWILL) – Aston Villa have no plans to sell Arsenal target Douglas Luiz and are instead arranging contract negotiations with the midfielder.
Villa’s administration has informed Luiz’s agents that they are ready to begin negotiations on a new long-term contract after Luiz had been approached by a couple of Premier League opponents, notably Arsenal.
It is clear by their actions that the Midlands club has categorically demonstrated that he is not available.
Since new manager Steven Gerrard took over, Luiz has been a standout performer, and the manager wants it to be obvious that he does not want to lose the Brazil international.
Luiz has settled in nicely since joining from Manchester City for £15 million in 2019. The Cityzens did not want to lose him, but they had little choice because they were unable to obtain a work permit for him due to the restrictions in effect at the time.
City has expressed interest in bringing him back and Arsenal is showing interest, but Luiz is ready to commit to Villa since he enjoys his life in Birmingham. The Brazilian has established himself as a regular in his country’s squad, and Gerrard is desperate to keep him.
When asked about the Brazilian at the weekend, Gerrard acknowledged, “Douglas is a fantastic player, really talented, and we rate him extremely high.”
“We want to keep all of our best players around. We understand there will be interest in our best players as well, we don’t have a problem with that.
“But yes, we want to keep all of our top talent around, we see Douglas as a top talent, a really wonderful footballer on his day. It’s my job to try to make this team and this squad as strong as it can be, littered with top footballers.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
