Aston Villa journalist Ashley Preece has been sharing some details regarding a potential new contract at Villa Park for club captain Jack Grealish.
This comes after Preece made an appearance on a recent Q&A episode of the Birmingham Mail’s Claret & Blue Podcast, where he answered a number of questions regarding Dean Smith’s side.
After it was recently reported that Villa are confident about tying down Grealish to a new contract this summer to ward off interest from Manchester City, Preece had this to say on the matter.
He said: “He’s on holiday for the next couple of weeks, I guess, and his situation will be ironed out. Obviously, a new contract is there for him to sign.
“The owners want to keep him at the club, [Christian] Purslow the same, and Smith, just to stave off any interest from Man City, who are yet to offer anything for him and yet to progress with any deal.
“It’s as you were, really, and there’s a new contract there for him. His future will be ironed out in the coming weeks once he returns from holiday, and we go from there.
“That’s all I can report on as it stands.”
As a product of Villa’s youth system, Grealish made his senior debut for the Midlands club back in 2014 during a 4-0 defeat against Manchester City.
Since then, the 25-year-old, who is currently valued at £58.5 million, has made 213 appearances for the Villans across all competitions, in which he has scored 32 goals and provided 43 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Ashley Preece’s comments on a potential new contract for Grealish…
Given how Grealish ended the 2020/21 Premier League season as Villa’s highest-rated player according to WhoScored with an overall rating of 7.56/10, it’s understandable why the club would be desperate to keep him at the club for as long as possible, even though he signed a five-year deal only last year.
Do you think Grealish will sign a new deal with Villa this summer?
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In our view, if Villa can get Grealish to sign a new deal to extend his current contract at Villa Park, this would certainly show just how much the Englishman wants to be at the club and put any talk of a potential exit to bed.
However, taking into account what Preece had to say, it seems that there is some waiting to be done while Grealish is on holiday after his involvement with England at Euro 2020, so this story may drag on for a while yet.
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