Aston Villa would be risking Dean Smith's wrath by selling Douglas Luiz this summer amid a recent transfer update.

What's the story?

The 23-year-old has pretty much been a permanent fixture in Dean Smith's side since making the switch to Villa Park, already making 76 appearances for the first-team, including playing 33 out of the 38 Premier League games last season.

His form even earned him international honours, picking up his first couple of senior caps for Brazil, and so it's been no surprise then that his market value has absolutely sky-rocketed, now standing at £31.5m according to Transfermarkt.

Now, BBC Sport claim that Serie A giants AS Roma are interested in signing Luiz this summer, amid the Italian side's offer for Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka being rejected.

Dean Smith would be fuming

While Southampton star James Ward-Prowse would be an upgrade on Luiz, selling the Brazilian outright this summer would be a foolish mistake by the Villa hierarchy.

Speaking last summer, The Athletic journalist Gregg Evans, said of him: "He’s an absolute joy to watch now and I never thought I would be saying that. Villa have got a fantastic player in Douglas Luiz now, he looks like an absolute star, he could have played in that Man United team.

"He was better than (Paul) Pogba, I thought. I thought he was brilliant, hardly did anything wrong, hardly put a foot wrong. He won so many interceptions and made so many important blocks. When he gets the ball, he passes it nicely. He’s the best player in that Villa team at the moment because it’s just not working for John McGinn."

Given the fact he played such an integral role in Villa's superb Premier League campaign last season, it would be absurd for the club to let him go, especially without any replacements having been signed first.

If Ward-Prowse does arrive, then perhaps the argument changes about potentially cashing in on him and recouping some money, but the fact is, with the owners supposedly backing Smith to the hilt in the transfer market, there should be no need to sell.

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Luiz has been a regular starter for Smith, and the Villa boss would surely be fuming were the club to sell him to Roma.

Meanwhile, Ashley Preece has dropped an update on this Villa man...