Adrian Durham heaped praise on Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish and tipped him to make England’s squad next season.
The talkSPORT presenter claimed the 23-year-old midfielder is a Premier League player waiting to happen with Aston Villa having won promotion from the Championship this season.
However Durham claimed Grealish should have been playing in the top-flight sooner than next season, and tipped him to be called up to England’s senior squad once he proves his talents upon the 2019/20 season getting underway.
“We’ve talked about Jack Grealish and he isn’t with the squad right now but he is a Premier League player waiting to happen,” said Durham on talkSPORT (17:52, Thursday June 6th).
“He should have been a Premier League player by now and I think England’s first squad once it’s underway he could be in that squad.”
OPINION
Durham is a little harsh on Grealish opting to stay with Aston Villa in the Championship, as it’s not like he hadn’t tasted Premier League football before. The 23-year-old playmaker featured 34 times in England’s top-flight before the Villans suffered relegation, and he did well to stay loyal to them. Grealish clearly is a Villan through and through, so why should his decision to play in the Championship longer than his talent warrants, be condemned. After all it has worked out perfectly for him, almost like a fairytale, as he got to captain his side at Wembley as they won the play-off final to take their rightful place back in the Premier League. Grealish has no doubt dreamed of playing for the Villans at Wembley and if he had left last summer, he never would have got the chance. As for the rest of Durham’s kind if not judgemental words, Grealish is surely destined to make one of Gareth Southgate’s squad sooner rather than later.