Villa News Speaking to Dan Bardell

Tue 6 September 2022 14:00, UK

We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…

Aston Villa are risking the loss of Douglas Luiz for free next summer but could not afford to let him move to Arsenal on deadline day believes Dan Bardell.

The Gunners approached the club three times as the transfer window came to a close, bidding as much as £25million for the Brazilian midfielder [Guardian], but were knocked back each time and he remains at Villa Park.

That creates the risk of carrying an unhappy player in an already difficult situation, but in light of the fact that he has been one of the better performers when he has featured so far this year Bardell feels that whether he signs a new contract or not before the summer it was not an option for him to leave now, even if it is understandable that he might have wanted to.

Speaking exclusively to Villa News he said of the 24-year-old’s situation: “A source told me that Douglas Luiz and Villa had not discussed contracts at all until the last month or so. He hadn’t asked for a contract. Villa hadn’t tried to give him one.

“There was just this kind of acceptance that he had a year left and this was what was going on. Then it sounds like in the last month or so Villa have offered him a three-year deal which he’d been considering.

“He’s not been playing. He’s not been starting. My opinion is that he’s good enough to be starting in that XI because he just offers something that Villa don’t have at the moment in terms of being a number eight, but he’s a good passer, he’s a good distributor.

“So I think him being in the team gets the ball to the forward players quicker. I thought he was good against West Ham and as soon as he came off a goal came from directly where his position had been, and we lost a game that we shouldn’t have lost, 1-0 in what was a pathetic game all round from both teams.

“If Arsenal come in for a player, obviously they’ve been flying, he’s not first choice at Villa, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be first choice at Arsenal, but if you’re offered a fair amount of game time at Arsenal or to be rotation option at Villa you’re going to want to go to Arsenal, especially after they got off to a flying start.

“So I completely understand why the player probably wanted to make that move. I think Arsenal came in with three bids and they all got rejected, so now we’re risking having an unhappy player on our hands.

“Steven Gerrard came out and said, ‘It’s all fine, we’ve explained the situation and he’s ok with it, he’s a professional’. And I would expect him to be professional.

“But then the chances are at the end of the season Villa and Douglas Luiz will part ways, and he’s one of those players that I don’t think Villa have ever really seen the best of, but I feel like if he went elsewhere he would really stand out.

“I think if he’d gone to Arsenal, him in their team, I think he would have suited them down to the ground and I think people would have been looking at it and saying, ‘Why on earth didn’t Villa do more to keep him? Why did they let him go?’

“There were parallels with the [Carney] Chukwuemeka thing a little bit, where Villa could have taken the money because they know they’re not going to get anything in 12-months time, but at the moment we’ve just been in such a bad position that whatever money had been offered they need to keep him around because really he’s been one of the only ones whose had any semblance of form.

“So I’d have been very upset to see him go. We need options in that midfield, although whatever options we have Gerrard seems to usually pick the same two number eights.”

The club got a surprisingly strong deal when Chukwuemeka went to Chelsea earlier in the window, but the difference was that he had made pretty clear that he wasn’t going to sign a new contract and he was not in line to feature a great deal either way.

The signs were positive not so long ago that Luiz was set to sign his new deal offer, with the Daily Mail reporting on 8 August that it was expected, but that is still yet to happen.

Having scored twice direct from corners in recent weeks yet not starting regularly for Gerrard he attracted attention from a number of the top sides in England and around Europe before the deadline passed, but he remains a Villa player and handed more regular game time there should be hope that he does still extend his deal, if the possibility of moving to one of those clubs hasn’t permanently turned his head already.

In other Aston Villa news, Matty Cash has reacted on social media to the injury that forced him off in the draw with Manchester City.