Former Aston Villa defender James Chester has been sharing his appreciation for current Villa club captain Jack Grealish.
This comes after Chester recently appeared on the latest episode of The Athletic’s Villa-themed podcast 1874 where the Welshman spoke to Villa journalists Gregg Evans and Dan Bardell about his time at the Birmingham club.
During his interview with Evans and Bardell, Chester shared a story about Grealish and the trophy lift after Villa beat Derby County in the 2018/19 Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium.
He said: “He [Grealish] spoke to me before the game and said if we were to win, he’d like me to come up [to lift the trophy] which was really touching and something that I’ll remember forever.
“I think that’s what I found with Jack, he’s a lovely person and very genuine and really down to Earth and anyone that asks me, I’ve only got good words to speak about Jack.”
Chester signed for Villa back in 2016 from West Bromwich Albion for a fee of £8.37 million.
Chester was not in the playing squad for the final back in May 2019 when he was a Villa player after he struggled with a knee injury in the lead up to the final, but he was with the team on the day at Wembley.
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TIF Thoughts…
For Grealish to offer Chester the opportunity to join the team and lift the trophy to celebrate their play-off final win last year, this was a very nice thing for Grealish to do even though Chester didn’t play in the match.
This shows just how considerate Grealish is and how he saw Chester as an important part of that Villa squad even though he was unavailable for the final.