Aston Villa have made no qualms in strengthening their squad during the current January transfer window with Philippe Coutinho, Lucas Digne and Robin Olsen all being brought in to help strengthen Steven Gerrard's squad.

With those players now through the door and integrating themselves in the squad, the Midlands club look set to try and tie down the future of one of their key current players.

What's the news?

According to a recent Twitter post from journalist John Percy, Villa are "are poised to open talks" with midfielder Douglas Luiz over a new contract following interest from Premier League clubs in the current window.

The midfielder, whose current deal at the Midlands club is set to expire in the summer of 2023, has garnered interest from Arsenal in recent weeks.

Gerrard will be thrilled

Villa signed the Brazilian from fellow Premier League side Manchester City back in the 2019 summer transfer window in a deal worth a reported fee of £15m.

Since then, the 23-year-old has gone on to cement himself as an important figure for the Villans by making 94 appearances across all competitions with three goals and eight assists under his belt.

Having started 16 of the 17 Premier League games he's appeared in this season as well as racking up an overall performance rating of 6.91/10 from WhoScored, making him Villa's third-highest rated player, it's easy to see why the club would want to open talks with Luiz over a potential new contract to tie him down to Villa and shoo away any interest from Arsenal, which would surely please a lot of fans.

If the £31.5m-rated ace does end up signing a new deal at the Midlands club, this would surely please Gerrard as well the fans given how he clearly recognises Luiz's talents by playing him so regularly.

The Villa boss made this clear by recently saying that he and his coaching staff rate the midfielder "extremely" highly.

Moving forward, if the Villans can get Luiz to sign a new deal in the coming days and pledge his future to the project that Gerrard is building, this could be seen as just as important as their recent transfer deals earlier in the window.

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