Aston Villa and Chelsea are battling to sign a Premier League midfielder in Januaryplaceholder image
Aston Villa and Chelsea are battling to sign a Premier League midfielder in January | Getty Images/ Canva
Aston Villa are reportedly interested in a star that racked up more than 200 appearances for the football club in his first stint
Aston Villa are reportedly considering a stunning transfer hijack to re-sign former fan favourite Douglas Luiz this month.
Unai Emery’s side are short on options in the middle of the park after it was confirmed that Boubacar Kamara is likely to miss the remainder of the season with a serious knee injury.
The Frenchman has been pivotal in the club’s recent success and has been an everpresent in the team since arriving from Marseille on a free transfer.
Amadou Onana has just returned from injury to freshen things up in midfield, but it’s worth noting that both John McGinn and Ross Barkely are likely to be sidelined for at least another month, leaving the club even shorter on options ahead of a busy run of matches.
Aston Villa and Chelsea target Luiz
Sean Dyche’s side currently have the Brazilian on loan from Juventus until the end of the season, but have given him just five league starts all year despite sitting 17th in the league table.
Elliot Anderson, Nicolás Domínguez and Ibrahim Sangaré are all thought to sit ahead of him in the pecking order at the moment at the City Ground. Romano adds that Juventus could potentially look to terminate the loan deal and allow Luiz to move to another Premier League side.
Should Aston Villa re-sign Luiz?
They are clearly short on options in central midfield and could benefit from bringing back a player of Luiz’s calibre.
Overall, Luiz played 204 matches for Aston Villa in five seasons, scored 22 goals and contributed 24 assists. He was a near everpresent in the team and was voted both supporters and Player’s Player of the Season in 2022/23 in his penultimate year with the club.
Luiz offered tremendous physicality, excellent workrate and was a constant goal threat with the ability to strike the ball beautifully from long distance. He registered 10 goals and as many assists in his final term at Villa before signing for Juventus for £42m in 2024 in a deal which was largely motivated by PSR concerns, with many supporters sad to see him depart.
The risk, however, is the fact that over the last 18 months, Luiz has looked nowhere near as effective as he was in a Villa shirt. He struggled to make the grade at Juventus due to injury issues and is yet to prove he can make a significant impact at Nottingham Forest.
Perhaps Emery could get the best out of him if everything falls into place for a dream homecoming, but it all depends how concrete Chelsea’s interest is and whether Forest still feel he has a role to play this season.
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