Aston Villa to look to Liverpool for Douglas Luiz bidding war as £70m fee mooted
Aston Villa will be hoping that Juventus’ bid to sign Douglas Luiz will set off a potential summer bidding war at Villa Park, according to Alan Hutton.
The Brazilia looks set to leave Villa Park this summer with the Villans and Juventus close to agreeing on a swap deal that will see £16.9million, Weston McKennie and Samuel Iling-Junior join Unai Emery’s side [Fabrizio Romano, 11 June].
Thiago Motta’s club aren’t the only team credited with an interest in his signature as both Arsenal and Liverpool have previously been understood to be considering a summer move to secure the 26-year-old [Express, 28 April].
Although a deal does appear to close with Juventus, Hutton admits Villa will still be hoping a bid with a greater financial value is made, even if it does come from a rival at the top of the Premier League.
“That’s what they’ll want,” Hutton exclusively told Villa News.
“Villa will want the highest value possible. Personally, I want to see him stay, I want to see the team built around him to again push for the Champions League and the top four.
“It’s going to be incredibly hard next year, it’s not going to be easy to do this again so you need a top-quality squad and he’s part of that. As I said again, he’s one of the main reasons they are where they are.
“I would get it if a huge came in, £60million or £70million and there is a bidding war and he goes to a rival you can kind of understand it, as long as your recruitment is good and Monchi is on it to get somebody in to replace him.
“You want the highest value possible.”
Will Liverpool or Arsenal make summer transfer push for Aston Villa star Douglas Luiz?
Most supporters will agree with Hutton’s sentiment that he doesn’t want to see Luiz leave at all this summer, but it seems like an even greater kick in the teeth that the deal is so financially poor for the Villans.
Although PSR was always going to make it tough for Emery to keep his best talent, few would have expected Luiz to leave for less than £20million, even if players were included in the deal.
Both Liverpool and Arsenal would have been expected to pay somewhere in the region of £70million as Hutton suggested which would have allowed Emery and Monchi to go out and strengthen this summer.
Hopefully, another party will enter the race for the Brazilian sooner rather than later to at least drive up the asking price before it is too late.
Otherwise, this window feels like it is off to a very bad start for everyone at Aston Villa.
In other Aston Villa news, Monchi is set to look for a Matty Cash upgrade during the summer transfer window at Villa Park
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