The transfer decision just as important as keeping hold of Jack
IT WAS a report that sent Villa supporters into meltdown at the prospect of losing one of their star performers.
This time Jack Grealish’s name was nowhere to be seen, yet it involved Villa’s best player throughout last term’s Project Restart – Douglas Luiz.
“Gutting but almost inevitable”, “Please no”, and “Pep, please have mercy”, were just some of the fan reactions following news Manchester City were primed to trigger their welldocumented £25 million buy-back option on the 22-year-old midfielder.
The shock transfer line came via Globo Esporte, a news outlet based out of Rio De Janeiro, Douglas’s home city. The report highlighted how City being dumped out of the Champions League would force Guardiola into a major shake-up of his squad and see Douglas return to the Etihad.
Was there any credence to it, though? Well, City inserted an option on the Brazilian for a reason. Lyon hurt them on the counter-attack and Douglas has become a bit of a whizz at curtailing attacks and winning possession back quickly, something Pep’s men lacked badly against the French outfit.
Fernandinho, City’s preferred defensive midfielder, played right of Pep’s back three versus Lyon and, at 35, his career is coming to an end. City fans aren’t completely sold on Ilkay Gundogan either, with £63 million Spaniard Rodri the main man in that defensive anchorman position for the foreseeable future. But what of City’s interest in Douglas? There have been reports suggesting Guardiola has no interest at present in re-signing him, with one claiming Villa are readying a new and improved contract to wipe out the clause.
A new deal for Douglas should be top of Dean Smith’s remit when he, chief executive Christian Purslow and sporting director Johan Lange meet up this week.
City’s option on the player will continue to be the elephant in the room all season ahead of it expiring in June 2021. All it could take is an injury to Rodri, Gundogan or Fernandinho and Guardiola can pick up the phone, pay the £25m and order Villa’s main man to report back to the Etihad. “He’s Pep’s loss and my gain. I met Pep at the League Managers’ meeting and he spoke to me then, he was very disappointed they couldn’t get that work permit,” said Smith. “Pep said, ‘You’ve got a really good lad there’. There is no better endorsement for the boy.”
Villa won an appeal to sign Douglas by showing how important he would be to them and, as much as Guardiola rated Douglas, he would not have been a first-team regular at the Etihad barring injuries.
However, Douglas
has
since obtained a two-year work visa with his importance to Villa becoming stronger and stronger by the week.
He has sorted a UK driving licence, too, and passed an all-important English exam in late June, meaning he’s ticking every single box as he looks to forge a long and successful career in the Premier League.
City would have to convince the relevant governing bodies that Douglas would be a crucial part of their team and, at present, that’s something they cannot do given the money they’ve splashed on players in similar positions to Villa’s Brazilian.
What’s more, he has not played 30 per cent of Brazil’s games in the last two years and, in a Premier League system that only wants the best talent playing in a country that is trying to produce homegrown talent, he does not automatically qualify.
Douglas has become a real leader and a well-liked character at Villa after initially struggling to adapt. He has fully immersed himself within the club and city and, if City were to pounce due to a crisis on their part, it would be a crying shame as Villa would lose an outstanding player who is just getting started.