Douglas Luiz

[Gabriel]

Thank God he never got that work permit - we won the domestic treble with Dinho and Gundo at the 6 and signed Rodri a year later.

Looked more than decent when he played with us and had huge potential; we have been scrambling around for suitable cover ever since, including milking every last drop out of tired limbs.

 

[balotelli's back pocket]

Looked more than decent when he played with us and had huge potential; we have been scrambling around for suitable cover ever since, including milking every last drop out of tired limbs.

We've only been lacking in that position since Dinho left in 2022, by which point Luiz had been gone for 3 years. We didn't exactly miss out - the timing wasn't right and we made a profit.

 

[Bluearmy]

Gotta say this would be a surprise based on current form/appearances and injury record at Juve.

To be fair to him, he played a minimum of 33 league games in each of his 5 seasons with Villa. Played over 300 games in total at 26. He pulled his thigh (it happens), doesnt suggest he’s injury prone/should be avoided imo.

Knows the league and the club to some degree. Considering its January and options are no doubt limited, we should be seriously considering this, if Juve want him gone!

 

[Kippax Kidd]

Perfect signing . Improves the team . Keeps the money for main targets in the summer instead of wasting it in January .

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

If this can be done it should be done. We must take into account the situation in our midfield now and not when everyone is fit, which is a different argument, and that can be addressed during the summer window.

 

[Mad 4 It]

No risk deal in my opinion nothing to lose whatsoever

 

[blueparrot]

Tbh it doesn’t for me. Admittedly Luiz has PL experience but I think the club should be buying a lad they want, rather than doing a market opportunity because Luiz has an attitude problem and has barely played a game for Juve.

Maybe the lad they want isn’t for sale in January.Maybe the lad they wany doesn’t want to leave his club in January.

 

[WesthoughtonJohn]

To be fair to him, he played a minimum of 33 league games in each of his 5 seasons with Villa. Played over 300 games in total at 26. He pulled his thigh (it happens), doesnt suggest he’s injury prone/should be avoided imo.

Knows the league and the club to some degree. Considering its January and options are no doubt limited, we should be seriously considering this, if Juve want him gone!

It's just a tricky one
Hindsight being wonderful we should probably have brought him back in the summer
We didn't and we'd now be risking his fitness, we can't carry more fitness concerns right now (I do get there is no 100% guarantee on anyone we might sign)

 

[dadnlad]

Maybe the lad they want isn’t for sale in January.Maybe the lad they wany doesn’t want to leave his club in January.

Please stop talking sense on here

 

[ninjamonkey]

My question would be, why didn't we sign him in the summer - when it was a very easy deal to do?

He played his best football for Villa as an 8, not a 6. Maybe we decided he wouldn't offer us anything Kovacic doesn't already?

No idea. Things change. We aren't in the same situation now as we were in last summer. The need for reinforcements in that area has drastically increased. He also cost £42m to sign, if we are looking at a loan, even with a substantial loan fee and perhaps even buy clauses inserted, it's a different league to what Juve paid.

I agree he probably operates best as a hybrid than a pure 6 but we are deep in the shit at this point, we find the best option to us, its unlikely to be a perfect fit but we take it, eat the cost get through the season and reassess. Luiz and kovacic is a substantially better duo in midfield on paper than anything else we can put out right now

Doing nothing is the worst thing we can do that's basically the reason why we are in this mess as it is.

See all the points. I’d be very surprised if this happens to be honest.

It’s an easy link, think/hope the club will prioritise the long term over getting a lad like Luiz in over the short term.

You're correct it's an easy link to make for a story but that also doesn't mean it's not valid. Club may well be looking somewhere else but to us on the outside it makes sense, arguably the most sense.

We don't have the luxury of thinking purely long term this window, we screwed ourselves over and now it's firefighting mode. we can potentially find ourselves outside the top 4 for the first time in well over a decade, which will be very damaging, the immediate is more important than the future right now, there has to be an attempt to fix the problems. If we can find an ideal, perfect fix that works now and into the future too then brilliant, if not, we find a temporary fix and Viana has to work a little bit harder to earn his bumper new wages next summer onwards.