Aston Villa have reportedly reached a verbal agreement with Juventus over the fee plus player swap deal for Douglas Luiz.
Speculation has been rife over the past week or so over Luiz’s future at the club, with Villa looking to sell before the end of June in order to address our PSR concerns.
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While we’ve already confirmed the departure of Tim Iroegbunam this month, it looks as though Luiz will be the next to move on, with Fabrizio Romano reporting that Villa and Juve have agreed terms, and so it’s merely a matter of time before the formalities of the deal are completed and it can be announced.
He notes that Villa will receive €28m, Enzo Barrenechea and Samuel Iling Jr for Luiz, while he added later that Juve will have a 10 percent sell-on clause inserted into the agreement for both players.
Those terms have been echoed by The Athletic, who report that Villa are effectively receiving €50m for Luiz, with €22m going back to Juventus for the two players involved in the exchange. Further, they note that both Barrenechea and Iling Jr will undergo medicals next week.
Naturally, it’s both disappointing and frustrating to have to sell one of our most influential players to start the summer, and given how much improvement and progression Luiz showed after Unai Emery’s arrival, it’s certainly a blow to lose him at 26 years of age, with the peak of his career still to come.
Nevertheless, with those PSR concerns in mind, it’s a sacrifice that Emery was seemingly willing to make in conjunction with the Villa management team who are monitoring our financial position, and so it’s hoped that this decision, combined with other exits, will give us the flexibility and spending power for the rest of the summer to bring in significant reinforcements.
Further, both Barrenechea and Iling Jr look like real talents that will no doubt benefit from the coaching and guidance from Emery and his staff, and so it’s hoped that we’ve ultimately made the squad stronger in the end despite losing Luiz, and simultaneously put ourselves in a great position to go out and sign Emery’s priority targets this summer.
