OPINION
Ian Holloway clashed with Adrian Durham over the Aston Villa future of Jack Grealish following the Villans defeating Derby County 2-1 in the play-off final.
Durham was covering the play-off final on talkSPORT alongside Holloway and Simon Grayson; and once the trophy had been lifted, he started a debate about Grealish’s future at the Villans.
“Will he definitely go? Would he get the wages he want?” pondered Durham on the subject on Grealish (talkSPORT, Monday 27th, 17:14).
This prompted Holloway to passionately respond to shutdown the broadcaster’s doubts about Grealish and ease any concerns that he is exit-bound.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, you wouldn’t let Grealish go now and I don’t think the boy will want to go,” responded the former QPR boss.
This then prompted Durham to backtrack slightly, before once again hinting that he believes Villa will struggle to keep Grealish 100% happy despite reaching the Premier League.
“Well I think today if you asked him, he wouldn’t want to go as he’s just had the trophy, he’s been sliding on his knees in front of the Villa fans, he is part of this incredible occasion but in the cold light of day Ian…surely there’s a question to be answered say if Villa cannot offer him what Tottenham can, they might be Champions League winners by then,” said the broadcaster.
Despite Durham’s insistence over Grealish’s Villa future being in doubt, Holloway wouldn’t budge and expertly provided a reason why he was going nowhere.
“It’s not all about money, trust me, the boy wants to play for Villa, Champions League football? Villa in two years time or three years time..they might be able to build, you don’t know,” replied Holloway.
“They’ve got billionaire owners man, they’ve got more money then they can throw away and hopefully Jack…it’s all about timing in life and y’know if I was him right now, I wouldn’t go anyway.
“Is he going to play?”
So while Holloway may have gotten a little carried away by claiming the Champions League was possibly in the Villans’ near future, he is surely spot-on when it comes to Grealish.
The manager oozed confidence when dismissing any doubts Durham may have that the 23-year-old attacking midfielder isn’t sticking around after helping his side win promotion back to the Premier League.
And it’s easy to see why.
Grealish has always been passionate about his hometown club, and his love for the side he has been at since he was a youngster has always shined through, in fact the Times even recently stated it was his dream to play for the Villans in the Premier League again.
Given that he worked so hard to get Dean Smith’s side to the promise land why would he walk out on them now? Holloway rightly pointed out that football isn’t all about money; although at times it does seem like it.
So with that said while Durham, and others, will probably stir up the fact that Grealish could be exiting this summer; surely the likes of Holloway are more on the money this time around.