Sky Sports pundit Keith Andrews has claimed that Jack Grealish could play for any team in the Premier League except for Liverpool and reigning champions Manchester City.
The Daily Mail has reported that Tottenham are interested in signing the 23-year-old in the summer transfer window after failing in a bid to land the Villa playmaker last year.
Andrews has since revealed that he’s heard Grealish doesn’t particularly want to leave Villa Park, regardless of whether or not they win promotion this season and has delivered a gushing verdict on the midfielder.
“Take Liverpool and Manchester City, I think he could play for any other Premier League team, he’s that good,” Andrews told Off the Ball, as shown via their Periscope account on Tuesday morning.
“The talent has always been there but what you would have had in the last 12 to 18 months I suggest there’s been a professionalism around his game and he seems to be taking it very very seriously.
“You can see it in his body shape and how fit he is and how strong he is. He’s still pick up a little bit of a niggle, which sometimes you can’t do anything about, but he’s leading his light the right way and the effects are spectacular.
“He’s turning into quite the special player we probably all assumed he would.”
The former West Brom and Wolves midfielder added: “If it wasn’t for the takeover last summer, he was gone.
“The takeover happened in the middle of the pre-season and the goalposts changes.
“Jack Grealish doesn’t have to go. He didn’t particularly want to go, from what I hear.
“He’s obviously Aston Villa through and through so I think his genuine dream is to get Aston Villa back into the Premier League.”
OPINION
Grealish’s future is going to be one of the most widely-talked about topics in the summer transfer window if Dean Smith fails to win promotion back to the Premier League with Aston Villa. Tottenham have been linked with the former England youth international for quite some time now and they will no doubt be knocking on the door once again in the summer if Villa lose in the play-offs. Grealish has had his best season yet in professional football and is bound to cost a lot of money if Villa were to let him go. It was has been widely reported that there is a release clause in the contract that he agreed last year, so there might be a Premier League club that is willing to match that to offer him top-flight football. Either way Grealish is not quite ready for a team like Spurs or Arsenal or Chelsea. He’s good but he’s only been good in the Championship.