Aston Villa’s strong stance over transfer price would likely see player remain with club

AS Roma have been trying to sign Granit Xhaka for much of the summer, with their efforts not amounting to much right now.

Ahead of Euro 2020 it was reported the Serie A club had reached an agreement with the Swiss midfielder on personal terms, and it was thought to be just a matter of time before he’d be wearing Roma’s shirt.

There were even claims the deal could be done before the tournament, but now weeks after it’s ended he remains an Arsenal player. That’s seen Roma turn their attention to Aston Villa and Douglas Luiz, which is covered by Tuttosport on Tuesday.

Luiz would be the next choice after Xhaka, yet Roma are set to face the same problems they’ve had with Arsenal. Tuttosport point out Aston Villa would want €30m for the Brazilian, which seems very reasonable, however, given Roma couldn’t pull together €23m for Jose Mourinho’s first choice, Xhaka, it’s unlikely they can spend more on their Plan B.

There’s no reason for Aston Villa to lower their price, and Roma are likely to find the Birmingham club as tough a nut to crack as they have Arsenal.