One of the big failures this window for AS Roma was the fact they didn’t get the midfielder they were looking.
Spending far too long trying to convince Arsenal to sell Granit Xhaka, the Serie A side left themselves with less time than they should have to convince other clubs to let their players go.
One of the names discussed was that of Douglas Luiz, currently at Aston Villa.
The Brazilian has been key to Dean Smith’s success at Villa Park, which is why the Villans weren’t overly keen to see him go.
That being said, Corriere dello Sport explain that ‘if he could have chosen’, José Mourinho ‘would have welcomed’ one of either Denis Zakaria or Douglas Luiz in Rome.
However, it’s made very clear ‘there was no way to please him’, most likely due to the fees required to dislodge the two players from their respective teams.
A win for Aston Villa here, because there’s no denying the lure of playing for Mourinho is strong, but keeping such an important player after having already lost Jack Grealish was important.
