Manchester City sold Douglas Luiz to Aston Villa in 2019 and he has been in scintillating form for the Claret and Blues this season
Douglas Luiz scores for Aston Villa against West Ham (Image: Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Man City fans have questioned the club’s board and their decision to sell Douglas Luiz to Aston Villa.
The in-form midfielder was in scintillating form against West Ham last weekend, and has been wowing the Villa Park faithful with his impressive, consistent performances this season.
The Brazilian scored twice against the Hammers as Unai Emery’s side cruised to a convincing 4-1 win, the team’s 11th consecutive league victory at Villa Park. Luiz’s brace took his tally for the season to six goals in all competitions, already closing in on his career-best total.
City sold the Brazil international to a newly-promoted Villa side, back in 2019. The £15m deal materialised due to Luiz struggling to obtain a visa to play for Pep Guardiola’s side, leading him to spend time on loan at Girona, though City initially retained a buyback clause.
Luiz’s progression during his first two seasons with Villa was not enough to convince City to bring him back into the fold by the time their buyback option expired in 2021. However, his former club did reportedly retain a sell-on clause.
That is something that has left the City fans disgruntled, some fans even suggesting that the club should be looking to get him back to the Etihad…
Scorpio 1 : Possibly buy him back & part X with back pass Jack. Why you’d pick Grealish ahead of Palmer was beyond me?
LazerBlue : We should never have sold Palmer – a young gem. JG has no end product.
Douglas Luiz or Joelinton would have been better bets than Phillips!
Bluesince1955 : I fail to understand how City couldn’t get a work permit for Luiz but Villa could. That said I always felt we missed a trick not activating the buy-back clause when it was available because although he maybe wasn’t a 40-game-a-season player for us at that time to me he was the perfect backup to Rodri and long-term replacement for Fernandinho.
Straffs : Part of a work permit approval is also based on a guarantee of a certain percentage of playing time which Man City refused to agree to so the work permit was denied. Man City basically said to Luiz that he’s not good enough to play a certain percentage. What a way to tell a player they don’t have any faith in him, no wonder he was eager to sign for Villa.
Alphonso : It’s easy to criticise City for the players allowed to leave, and who eventually made the grade to have been a City starter, but the reality is that few players have achieved this level. Most of the few who have, Lavia comes to mind, and Luiz too, were special cases.
Douglas Luiz of Aston Villa (Image: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
Thrilledsince1965 : I don’t know how many times I complain about the wastage of City prospects. Like Palmer and co why do we need to sell these diamonds in the rough. Persevere. We should have kept Luiz, and not subject the club to unwarranted buy-back clauses. (By the way when did this actually work?) Luiz is one of the better midfielders in the PL and it will take a lot of persuading to claw him back now that he is so valuable to Villa.
Wowthathurt : Pep did want to keep him but they couldn’t get him a UK work permit unless he was guaranteed to be a permanent first team squad member. And that couldn’t happen because he wasn’t ready.
This became prominent in Arsenal’s pursuit of Luiz during last summer’s deadline day, when the Gunners were claimed to have seen three bids knocked back by the Villa hierarchy. That was despite Luiz entering into the final year of his contract and not then being a guaranteed starter under Steven Gerrard.
Much to the delight of Villa supporters, Luiz signed a fresh ‘long-term’ contract with the club the following month, believed to run until 2026. The subsequent arrival of Emery led Luiz to thrive, playing a pivotal role in the club’s transformation into contenders for European football. Since agreeing his new deal, there has been no suggestion that City still have a sell-on clause in place.
Explaining his decision to sign a new contract with Villa in October 2022, Luiz said: “Because I love this club, this club opened the door for me to come here to England and play in the Premier League. The club has given me the space and I’m so happy, because I’m staying here and my choice is here.”
Source: standard.co.uk
