Manchester City are reportedly interested in re-signing Douglas Luiz, but Aston Villa are adamant they won’t entertain offers for the midfielder in January.
90min have claimed Pep Guardiola is keen on the idea of bring the Brazil international back to the Etihad Stadium, after leaving in 2019.
Luiz was on the books at City but struggled to get a visa to play for Pep’s first-team and so, after two years on loan at Girona, he was sold to Villa for around £15 million.
City did have a buy-back clause on Luiz, but the club weren’t convinced enough at the time it was active to trigger it.
Despite that clause expiring, it looks as though City could now make a play for the South American dynamo…
Manchester City interested in Douglas Luiz but Aston Villa don’t want to sell
90min are reporting today that City are one of a few clubs to be expressing an interest in the £75,000-a-week ace. Arsenal and Liverpool are also mentioned.
The publication claim that City have expressed interest in Luiz, but they are likely to meet strong resistance from Villa, with Luiz having been superb so far this season.
The Villans are said to be desperate to keep hold of the 25-year-old and have made it clear that they will not entertain offers of any kind in January.
It is thought that it is a strong desire of the player to help Villa get into the Champions League, and he also feels there is a chance of silverware soon in the form of the Europa Conference League.
Luis has been all-action this season, chipping in with five goals but also being solid defensively. Interestingly, so far in the Premier League in 2023/24, Luiz has recorded a higher tackling success rate than City’s Rodri (53.5% to Rodri’s 47.4%, via fbref).
Luiz is a top player and City should keep tabs
Interest from City in Luiz should perhaps not come as too big of a surprise, because this is a player Pep didn’t actually ever want to lose.
As reported by The Athletic, in an effort to get past the work permit issues Pep actually sent video footage of Luiz to the UK Home Office, and outlined how the player would be important to his City side.
Perhaps this is one to keep an eye on, because you would imagine City will be offloading Kalvin Phillips in January.
He will probably leave on loan first, and then it could be that he is sold next summer, meaning City could then go for Luiz with Villa more likely to sell then and not mid-season.
