Villa made major howler over £41m-rated "full package", he's far better than Luiz - opinion

Even though Aston Villa didn’t waste time in spending a significant amount of money on new players during the previous summer transfer window after selling Jack Grealish to Manchester City for a British transfer record of £100m, they arguably made a mistake by not signing one of the players they were linked with during that time.

The Midlands club were heavily linked with a move for Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse during the previous summer transfer window and even reportedly had a bid of £25m turned down for him, highlighting their eagerness to add him to their squad.

Villa did, however, manage to sign a player from the south coast club in that window, with striker Danny Ings making the move to Villa Park in August for a fee of £25m.

Now that the dust has settled from the summer and the recent January transfer window, it’s a good time to reflect on what could have been a brilliant bit of business from Villa if they were successful in luring Ward-Prowse to the Midlands.

In 348 senior appearances for the Saints across all competitions, the midfield maestro, who has been described as being the “full package” by Ralph Hasenhuttl, has racked up 39 goals and 47 assists along the way, showing the attacking and creative qualities he has.

In addition to his goals and assists, the 27-year-old’s overall performances have also proved why he’s such a crucial figure for Southampton with WhoScored listing him as the club’s highest-rated player this season with a rating of 7.09/10, which is higher than the likes of current Villa midfielders Douglas Luiz, Jacob Ramsey, Marvelous Nakamba and Morgan Sanson have managed to rack up in this campaign.

Taking this into account, it feels as though Villa should have pushed harder to