Douglas Luiz has been speaking about his time at Manchester City – as he prepares to face the Citizens with Aston Villa tonight.
The Brazil international spoke to ESPN about what life at the Etihad Stadium was like.
So, what did Douglas Luiz say about Manchester City? Let’s take a look…
What Douglas Luiz said about Manchester City
Well, things did not exactly go to plan for the South American at Manchester City – nor for him or Pep Guardiola.
The Citizens simply could not get a work permit for Luiz from the UK Home Office, despite sending him on loan to Girona for both the 2017/18 campaign and also the 2018/19 season in an attempt to build up his qualification points.
Eventually, that led to the 25-year-old being sold to Aston Villa in a deal worth £15m back in July 2019.
Speaking about his problematic time at Manchester City, Luiz said: “There’s no way for me to know if it was the best or the worst path, because I couldn’t do both paths, but it’s a club that I have a lot of gratitude for, because it was the club that went to Brazil, brought me to Europe, something that every player dreams.
“I also knew about the contract, when I went to Girona. It wasn’t as expected, because they told me that I was going to Girona, gain more experience and then return to Manchester City (to be part of the squad), something that ended up not happening, but I have nothing to be frustrated about, I’m very happy with the moment I’m living in.”
Manchester City surely made that promise with good intentions and had every desire to actually play Luiz – unfortunately, the UK Government stood in the way.
How did Aston Villa get a work permit, you may ask?
Well – according to Birmingham Live – the Villans made a very convincing presentation to the UK Home Office, while the size of the £15m transfer fee also helped the work permit process.
Manchester City monitoring Douglas Luiz
The treble winners clearly saw something special in Luiz – and they still do.
A story from Dean Jones on Give Me Sport claims that Manchester City are monitoring the Brazilian after his excellent start to the 2023/24 campaign, in which he has already registered ten goal involvements in 22 appearances for Aston Villa.
Therefore, another chapter to the story involving Manchester City and Luiz could still be written…
