Stiliyan Petrov backs ‘world-class’ Luis Suarez to succeed at Aston Villa
Aston Villa are closing in on the marquee signing of Atletico Madrid striker Luis Suarez with the Uruguayan set to be a free agent in the summer.
The 35-year-old is looking to reunite with former Liverpool teammate Steven Gerrard – now Villa boss – and a deal could be struck to bring him back to the Premier League with the Villans.
Ex-Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov has backed Suarez to be a roaring success at Villa Park should the deal go through as he lauded Gerrard’s ability to attract players of such calibre.
“I’m not surprised at all. Suarez is a world-class striker. A lot of people were surprised – can he still do it? As long as you have the right quality players around them,” Petrov said to Planet Sport.
“A lot of people question the years and everything else but you don’t have to forget that if you balance your team well you can use their strength in a different way.
“This is the profile Steven Gerrard is – everybody knows the way he manages and his desire to win.
“So players that have played with Steven Gerrard and the players that know Steven Gerrard or players that are going to firstly speak with Steven Gerrard will find out his profile and what he’s like as a manager and as a person mainly.
“I’m not surprised that high profile players have been linked with Villa again.”
Reunion
You almost have to wonder if this was Gerrard’s plan all along, he’s already gone and brought Philippe Coutinho into the club and now Suarez could be joining him in a Liverpool reunion of the early 2010s.
You would hope that this is where the links end, unless Raheem Sterling fancies playing in claret and blue, but it is scary to think of the players who would play for us now if the entire team were to play together again.
It would be Charlie Adam in midfield and Lazar Markovic on the wing with even Daniel Sturridge making a return from Perth Glory in Australia to lead the line alongside Suarez.
We’d much rather keep our current squad though and that will be the case, don’t panic, and there is huge potential in this group of players to catapult themselves up the Premier League table.
To do that though, they need to right additions and whether Suarez is that or not will only be found out if he joins the club but you would think that Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins are good enough to be the main men throughout the season.
In other Aston Villa news, Marseille midfielder Boubacar Kamara is another target of Gerrard’s and like Suarez, he’ll be available for free in the summer.