Aston Villa certainly kept themselves busy behind the scenes during the recent January transfer window in terms of the deals they managed to get done, with several new players arriving and a few of the existing squad moving out on loan.

Now that the winter market has closed, it seems as though a clue has been dropped regarding one particular deal which could be under the spotlight once the summer transfer window opens.

What's the news?

According to a recent report from Football Insider, Villa rejected a £30m bid during the recent January transfer window for Douglas Luiz and "will listen to offers around the £35m mark in the summer."

Villa struck a deal with fellow Premier League side Manchester City back in 2019 to sign the midfielder for a reported fee of £15m.

Since then, the Brazilian has gone on to make a name for himself at Villa Park, becoming an important figure for the team with a total of 94 appearances under his belt across all competitions, scoring three goals and providing eight assists along the way.

With John McGinn being the only Villa midfielder to have racked up more minutes in the Premier League this season that Luiz, this highlights just how vital the Brazilian is for the team in that area of the pitch.

Gerrard would be furious

The importance of the 23-year-old for the Villans so far this season in terms of his performances is reflected in WhoScored currently listing him as the squad's third-highest rated player with an overall rating of 6.91/10. Therefore, it's safe to say that he would be a big miss for the team if he ends up leaving in the summer.

Also, with Steven Gerrard recently saying that he and his coaching staff rate the £31.5m-rated star "extremely high," he would surely be furious to see the club potentially selling Luiz in the summer, which would be an unforgivable disaster for Johan Lange to sanction.

With journalist John Percy recently claiming that the Midlands club are looking to open talks with the midfielder with a view to signing a new contract with Villa, this should give the Holte End faithful some hope that the 23-year-old won't be leaving in the summer.

In other news: Villa dealt big blow on "intelligent" rarely-seen 19 y/o, he could have been Carney 2.0