Steven Gerrard has made stance on Douglas Luiz clear amid Aston Villa transfer claims

Steven Gerrard has insisted Douglas Luiz is a midfielder Aston Villa "rate very much", but the Brazilian continues to be linked with a transfer away from the club as he is yet to sign a new contact.

Luiz has just 12 months remaining on his current deal, which he signed back in 2019 after leaving Manchester City for £15million. And Villa are now faced with a decision to offer him a new contract or cash-in on the player, as his value is depreciating month by month.

The 24-year-old has made over 100 appearances for Villa and has been a regular starter for Gerrard, but following the arrival of Boubacar Kamara, Luiz's role in the starting XI is very much under threat. He has previously been linked with a move to Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle United, while Italian side Roma and now AC Milan hold a strong interest.

Asked about Luiz’s situation back in April, Gerrard claimed that contract talks were not due to start with Luiz until after the season had ended, but nothing seems to have been thrashed out since. Gerrard said: "He's got 12 months left (in the summer). That’s where we’re at. We haven’t analysed that individual’s situation in isolation, if you like. He’s a very good player who’s been playing the majority of the games. He’s a player we rate very much.

"All of the individuals, we’ll speak about from now until the end of the season and we’ll deal with each case when needs be but that’s certainly not right now." Gerrard continued: "We want to keep all of our good players at the club. For us, to take this where we want to take it, where the ambitions are, we want all of our remaining players to stay.

"But, at the same time, we’ve got to respect that everyone’s different, i.e. Phil’s on loan, i.e. Dougie’s got a year