According to Mirror, Luis Suarez asked Steven Gerrard to go for Rodrigo Bentancur in the transfer market. Suarez and Bentancur play together on the international stage and Suarez knows Gerrard from his time at Liverpool. The veteran striker used his experience in England to advise the Bentancur on what playing in England is like.
With Suarez’s advice, Villa made two bids for the Uruguayan midfielder but were rejected by Juventus. Steven Gerrard did want to sign Bentancur but the Italian giants were not convinced with the bids from Aston Villa. Therefore, on the deadline day, Tottenham successfully completed the transfer for the 24-year-old midfielder.
Juventus rejected a bid of £20 million from Aston Villa and later agreed to a deal of £21.5 million deal with Tottenham Hotspur. Bentancur was out of favor at Juventus and did not feature much for Allegri. However, he is an excellent midfielder despite the lack of game time he has had in the past few seasons.
Bentancur will surely be an important player at Tottenham as he is a player who Conte likes. The Uruguayan midfielder has also mentioned that Conte was a big factor in his decision to join Spurs. He already has a few good appearances for the London club but has experienced bad results. He is likely to start against table-toppers Manchester City.
Why Suarez advised Gerrard to sign Bentancur for Aston Villa?
Aston Villa currently have six midfield options in their squad. All of them provide a different skill set and abilities onto the pitch. However, none of them have the experience and expertise of Rodrigo Bentancur of playing at the highest level. Bentancur has a good experience of playing in the Champions League and also on the international level.
He has played with and against some of the greats of football at a very young age. His gameplay is very mature for a 24-year-old midfielder. Moreover, he has a good record of winning trophies wherever he has played. Although it would have been difficult to win a trophy with Aston Villa, he still would have improved them massively.
In addition, Bentancur’s price was a bargain and if only Villa could have pushed for a bit more they could have landed the player. It is very rare that a player of his caliber is priced at such low prices. Conte will certainly shape in a top-class midfielder but Gerrard might regret missing out on him.
Luis Suarez knows Rodrigo Bentancur and Steven Gerrard as he has played with them therefore he tried to make things easier for both parties. However, that did not turn out as Suarez wanted but it is still a good move for the Bentancur. The Uruguayan midfielder mentioned that Suarez became available for him when the news of his transfer broke out and was willing to offer more help.
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