I think quite a lot of people may have only started watching him properly after the lockdown when he was getting linked to us. He was generally quite poor by his standards after that period, so they took that as his normal level and thought he wasn't all that.
Jack Grealish
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
What's with all the over reactions in this thread. Grealish most definitely was not happening once Villa stayed up. Which of you posters would want Utd to spend 80m on him?
Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved him here but not over Sancho.
Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved him here but not over Sancho.
Its alright we got Vandebeek or whatever his name is. Ole wants British players anyway.
Klopp spoke highly of him, I do like Jota, but you do have to wonder why Liverpool didn't go for Grealish themselves, for probably 15m more they could have got a much better player in Grealish.
Yeah. Thank God we got Sancho.
Great to have the Sancho deal done and dusted for as long as we have. Thank Goodness.
Quality player who would compete with Rashford and Bruno for a starting spot if he came, while Van De Beek is a quality player at half the price who can play the deeper midfield positions. Not a cause for criticism.
Come on, you know what I meant. Just curious...a) do you think Grealish is worth 80m? b) would you pay 80m knowing that rules out any chance of getting Sancho who we prioritised (but our ineptness has cost us once again).
I can see you rate the lad highly.
The exact reason why he wouldn't have come, as he is still trying to cement his place with the national team and thats his goal in life in footie terms anyway. Remember this is a guy who used another country in hope of being picked by his birth country, so to think he would come here just to compete, is madness gone mad in my eyes.
The time to buy was before Villa avoided relegation.
Each is looking like a luxury buy when we have Bruno and suuuurely Pogba competing for the 10 spot then the utterly erratic form of Matic and Fred plus the developing but still plodding McTominay for those defensive mid spots. And with Pogba all ends up being one of the most ineffective and uninfluential big money buys of all time. I would certainly agree with those suggesting RW CB are priority but I’d add CM selling one of our CMs at least.
Mee too. I even follow them on Twitter
God we are a stupid club. He's only going to get better.
Well done guys, saying we shouldn’t have signed VdB. Well done. Once again most of you are completely ignoring Pogba, who is awful. Why couldn’t we have signed both and sold Pogba?
He had a very good game but does that make him an £80m player? I suspect he would have made the move if Villa were only asking for £50m. Nothing against you personally, but the trend towards opposition fans coming on here, creating and account and telling us “I told you so” is so irritating. We won’t hear from you when the chips are inevitably down.
We should have agreed a deal before Villa fought off relegation.
He is one of the best carriers in the world. Something I think our team really lacks. He was the most fouled player in Europe last season IIRC.
He would have been a great signing.
He is one of the best carriers in the world. Something I think our team really lacks. He was the most fouled player in Europe last season IIRC.
He would have been a great signing.
Mad that we managed to sign neither Sancho or Grealish
Looks like we'll sign him: "He's shit, plays for a relegation team"
We miss out on him: "We should have signed him, such a classy player"
We miss out on him: "We should have signed him, such a classy player"
I don't think that's the consensus at all.
Plenty would have liked him here, but not for the reported 80m fee.
He’s better off at his boyhood club. Even if Villa weren’t his boyhood club, he’d still be better off there.
Well, considering it was between the two for us, it definitely is.
Donny is an average workhorse.
Grealish can play as a 8, 10, false 9 and on the left to a higher level than anyone in our team. Whatever Villa wanted for him would be better value than £40m for Donny.
At least you've realised that, if he came, he wouldn't be taking a back seat to anyone. I remember you saying he was nowhere near Bruno, but he's better than him. Comfortably so.
I don't think he is better than Bruno, or Rashford, but each to their own.
He was really good last night. Carragher talked so much about all the defensive holes (which there were) that he had completely overlooked how it also needed some fantastic passes from Grealish to exploit those.
Will leave the Man. United debates to all you guys but have to say I'm amazed Man. City didn't come in for him at all during the summer. A Guardiola final third player for sure and would've filled the David Silva void nicely (especially with Bernardo also out of favour for some reason).
Perhaps Liverpool aswell but think Jota fits their style a little more and he was "only" 40m.
Bigger scandal for me is mid 20s and one international cap and that was a 10 minute cameo. I'm expecting the press to put massive pressure on Southgate to start him v Wales over next few days.
It's a cliche but a player of his type would have 30-40 caps already for Portugal or Spain. Reminds me of Gareth Barry getting ignored for years until he finally got regular call ups from 26 onwards.
Perhaps Liverpool aswell but think Jota fits their style a little more and he was "only" 40m.
Bigger scandal for me is mid 20s and one international cap and that was a 10 minute cameo. I'm expecting the press to put massive pressure on Southgate to start him v Wales over next few days.
It's a cliche but a player of his type would have 30-40 caps already for Portugal or Spain. Reminds me of Gareth Barry getting ignored for years until he finally got regular call ups from 26 onwards.
This isn't true. He was far from consistent in the Championship! He was a long way off being good enough for England for most of his career. Since he's moved to the left he looks a very good player but England are stacked in those positions. He's competing against Sterling, Sancho and Rashford for a starting place.
Mount was called up a few times when he was at Derby in the same season (18/19). Has 7 caps now and will probably feature in all 3 of the forthcoming games so 10 caps in 18 months isn't too bad for someone who's only had a year of premier league football.
Grealish could've been called up end part of 2015 season when he was MOTM in Liverpool cup semi final and England tried out some new players in end of season friendly in Dublin (likes of Vardy played in that). Andros Townsend got 13 caps around the 2013-15 period so that's example of player who had purple patch of form and quickly got put into the team and then stayed around the set up for a few more years.
Then he had some lost years but was really good in run in to 2018 seasom when we lost to Fulham in play off final. O.k perhaps 40 caps is a bit OTT but sure you can see where I'm coming from.
Of course England have fantastic players in final third but just playing pace in all 3 positions dosen't seem that great a strategy when you look at England's chronic struggles to break down deep defences and score goals from open play, need one of those 3 to drop deeper and play between the lines if you're not going to play a 10 aswell.
I'd agree but he seems to spend most of the time on the left while Silva dominated the centre
Wasn't Silva more of a wide player when he signed from Valencia? De Bruyne perfect example of wide player who was moulded into world class playmaker within months of working with Guardiola.
In 10/11 Mancini was always playing combination of De Jong/Barry/Yaya centrally from what I remember.
Initially he was but he developed into a superb CM. I can't see that with Grealish. He comes across as talented and tricky with a gorgeous first touch but a hard working CM? Not for me
PS: What KDB has is bags of pace and energy. Very much in the Bale mould, strong and fast. Hard to stop once he gets moving
He was an £80m player 1 year ago. I was on here when we were relegation certs, so that's not an issue. I'm not really criticizing the fans because you can't expect everyone to be familiar with every player who doesn't play for them (although the reflexive tendency to assume that a player from a smaller club can't be that good is a bit irritating).
It's really the clubs and boards I'm baffled by. I don't know if it's arrogance or not wanting to be burnt again after spending £80m on Maguire for example. What Levy was thinking only the man himself knows. There are other players like Tarkowski for example where I think it applies to as well. As fans of these clubs we're not complaining of course, but sometimes you have to wonder what goes on in these board meetings.
Exactly this.
It was never "Grealish or Van Der Beek" for me. We needed both and both make the squad better.
Pogba's long term future is never going to be here, he's been woeful for his entire time here.
Hate how we cant plan. Having Grealish also pushes the likes of Lingard and Mata further away from the x11 - which is great. We need a better squad - you do that by signing better players than what you have currently.
Grealish would make Fernandes/Rashford work hard to keep they're places - you think Rashford or Fernandes is scared of losing a starting spot to Lingard? No chance. We need healthy competition now a good x11 and utter crap on the bench
the skill that sent the "best defender football world has ever seen" to stand 
Please join us next year !
Please join us next year !
Grealish is awesome but in general I would stay away from english players that you gotta pay 80 million to get. The chance of one turning like Maguire or John Stones is awfully high.
So good for Grealish that he destroyed Liverpool but I wouldnt pay 80 million for him ever even in the best financial circumstances.
So good for Grealish that he destroyed Liverpool but I wouldnt pay 80 million for him ever even in the best financial circumstances.
Maguire and Stones were just 2 English CBs that could kinda pass a bit. No due diligence was done at all. Pure flavour of the month signings (though for City I imagine it helped fill out the homegrown quota). Players like Grealish, Sancho, Maddison, possibly Foden in a year or 2, you can tell they're the real deal and there's a wealth of data and playing time to support that. An analogous situation to Maguire/Stones is if someone paid £60m for Todd Cantwell on the back of a couple of good games last year.
Exactly mate. Finally someone who gets it. Im afraid Pogba will never be a success here. Pound-for-pound, he’s our worst ever signing due to the fee and exorbitant wages just short of Sanchez’s, who came for no transfer fee. Considering the rest of the players came from the academy, that makes Pogba the pound-for-pound worst player in our entire history. His fanclub will hammer me but just match his cost with his output. It’s ridiculously bad.
Seriously, if there’s something we must do in January, sell Pogba and sign Grealish. It’d give the kick up the arse for Bruno and Rashford you mentioned too.
Absolutely gutted we didn’t get Grealish. With the 5 year deal he’s signed I don’t know what our chances would be of ever getting him now.
In a couple of years it will be interesting to see who would’ve been the better signing for us in terms of comparing him to Sancho.
I really expect Grealish to have a bright future.
3 times now southgate has been asked about grealish and all 3 times he's swiftly moved on to praise other players.
Twice it was mason mount.
Wonder what the deal is?
Twice it was mason mount.
Wonder what the deal is?
Does Southgate have a daughter?
It's a edited clip propagated on Twitter by Grealish's very strange fans, they really are almost cult like over him. He talked about Grealish for longer in the full interview.
Beware of what you see on Twitter.