Aston Villa

Aston Villa: Tony Cascarino believes Jack Grealish could end up back at club if he plays poorly

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Image for Aston Villa: Tony Cascarino believes Jack Grealish could end up back at club if he plays poorly

TalkSport pundit Tony Cascarino believes former Aston Villa star Jack Grealish could end up back at the club if he does not impress this season. 

Grealish officially became the most expensive Englishman of all time after his £100m move from Villa to Premier League superpower Manchester City, and has perhaps not quite impacted the side as fans thought he would after the transfer.

As a result of this, Cascarino believes the upcoming 2022/23 season is going to be huge for the England international, and if he doesn’t impress, he could find himself out on loan or even returning to his former side.

Cascarino told TalkSport: “He’s in danger of being, at the end of the season, if he doesn’t pick up his own standard on what we know he’s capable of and why they paid £100m for him, that he’ll be probably either loaned out because he’s on such big money, or he might end up back at Villa. Because Jack is not playing well enough consistently for Man City.”

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TIF Thoughts on Cascarino’s comments…

While Grealish did not exactly set the world alight during his debut season for the Citizens, he actually played a lot better than Cascarino perhaps give him credit for. Despite only picking up six goals and four assists across all competitions, when you look at his underlying stats, he arguably shone last term.

According to statistics website FBref, Grealish ranked in the 99th percentile for progressive carries and touches in the attacking penalty area per game, in the 96th for shot-creating actions and in the 91st for expected assists and progressive passes received when compared to other attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues.

Grealish is still only 26 and is yet to come into his prime as a player, so for this reason, as well as his enormous wages and transfer fee, it is hard to see how he could end up back at Villa even though they are looking on the up with their new signings under manager Steven Gerrard.

Despite the Villans looking to break into the top 10 next season, a return for Grealish seems out of the picture as the team have moved on, using his transfer fee to bring in players like Emiliano Buendia, Philippe Coutinho, Diego Carlos and Boubacar Kamara.

All parties seem to have moved on, and even though there will surely Villa fans who would love to see Grealish back, they can have a bright future without him and risking the team’s cohesion to bring him back doesn’t make sense.

Will Grealish impress this season?

Yes

Yes

No

No

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