Aston Villa turned down all of Arsenal’s bids for midfielder Douglas Luiz on the last day of the transfer window. Villa said the player was not for sale.
David Ornstein said that the Brazilian international wanted the move, so it was possible that this stance would upset the player.
Steven Gerrard, the manager of Villa, said that they had talked about the decision to keep him, and he hopes that things will settle down soon.
“I’m sure he’ll understand the situation and the club’s decision,” Gerrard said. “We didn’t want to lose such an important and good player so late in the window.”
“From my own point of view, I strongly agree with the club’s decision and position on this. I talked to Dougie in person yesterday, and he knew how things were going and where the club was.
“He respects the choice very much. We hope that it will stop in the next few hours and days and that he will be fine from then on.”
You can definitely see why Luiz would be angry. Arsenal is on top of the league because they have won all five of their games. Villa is in 19th place because they have only won one game and lost four.
Villa can’t blame the schedule because they had a pretty good start to the season, at least until they played Arsenal.
After getting beat up by Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal, Bournemouth has a goal difference of -14, but they still beat Villa. West Ham, who were 20th at the time, did the same.
Even though Luiz scored this week against Arsenal, his team still lost. Plus, he has only started one game in the Premier League this season.
But Villa stood their ground, and now they’ll have to work hard to persuade the player to sign a new contract so they don’t lose him for free next summer.
