Danny Higginbotham heaped praise on Jack Grealish but warned that Aston Villa might lose him in the summer if they don’t get promoted.
Talking on Sky Sports Match Centre (Thursday, 10am), Higginbotham was asked if he thought Grealish was the Championship’s “most effective” player after their seventh straight win against Rotherham.
“I think you would have to argue that he is,” said Higginbotham, “and he’s the most important player on their team. You just have to look at the results with him and without him. That tells you all you need to know.
“It just feels like the armband has taken him on another level, he’s loving the pressure being on him, loving that he’s got to be a leader.”
However, Higginbotham believes that if Villa miss out on promotion, several clubs will come in for the attacker over the summer.
“I think he’s gone on another level and it will be very difficult for Villa to hold onto him,” he added.
OPINION
Grealish scored the winner in the game against Rotherham last night, and the 2-1 victory was made all the more impressive as Aston Villa were 1-0 down and down to 10 men at half-time. The three points lifts them to fifth and gives them a five-pint buffer over Middlesbrough in the race for the play-off spots. However, it’s not easy to go up via the play-offs and Villa could be playing for Grealish as well as promotion. The stats around the 23-year-old are impressive. In the 13 games he was out with injury, they only won two, and it left their play-off hopes in tatters. However, they’ve now won all seven games with him back in the side and a play-off place is theirs to lose. If they do go up you’d have to imagine Grealish will stay. Villa won’t want to lose their best player, with Tammy Abraham also heading back to Chelsea after his loan spell. However, if they miss out again, we think he goes. Tottenham narrowly failed to sign him last summer and they could come back in for him with a proper offer.