Chelsea remain interested in Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz — report

The eternal boredom of international breaks tends to result in an increase of rumor-mongering, and along those lines, we have a report from the Birmingham Mail that Chelsea remain “interested” in Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz, just as we supposedly were late in the summer transfer window as we scrambled around for midfielders.

Another thing that hasn’t changed is the 24-year-old’s contract situation, which is precisely why he remains on our radar (and the radar of some other teams, probably). He could be available for free next summer or at a cut-rate fee in January, and that could indeed be a good deal for anyone but his current team. Luiz had been a mainstay of Villa for the past three years, having failed to feature in just 12 of their 121 Premier League matches since his arrival in 2019 from Manchester City. Rather remarkably, he’s also scored two (2!) Olimpicos this season already, plus another one in preseason.

Chelsea’s last-minute dash down the midfield aisle last month saw us grab a box of Denis Zakaria off the bottom shelf, but we supposedly have our eyes on properly addressing the midfield situation in the next couple transfer windows — though we might want to get an actual sporting director in first...