Jack Grealish Aston Villa Future Unsure

Jack
Grealish admitted he does not know whether Tuesday's win over Arsenal may have
been his last game at Villa Park.
The Aston
Villa captain is heavily linked with a move away this summer, with Manchester
United top of the list of potential admirers.
Grealish,
who put in a man-of-the-match display on Tuesday as Villa climbed out of
the relegation zone with a 1-0 win, insists Premier League survival is his only
focus for the time being.
Asked if he
had played his final game at Villa Park, Grealish said: "I'm not too sure
at the moment.
For
Grealish, keeping his boyhood club in the top flight would "mean
everything" and the 24-year-old has promised to leave it all on the pitch
at West Ham on the final day.
"Since
we've been back I probably haven't been as effective as I was before,"
Grealish said.
"I
don't really mind pressure - pressure is a privilege, my old coach used to
always say that to me. I just need to do what I know I can do."
"He's
easy on the eye, he's silky on the eye, but I'm yet to be convinced by
him," said Graeme Souness after Villa's 2-0 defeat by Liverpool earlier
this month.
At the time,
Villa fans too will have been underwhelmed by their talisman's performances
since the restart - Grealish had been tepid, lacked bite and was dropping
deeper and deeper in games in an attempt to be Villa's hero. But in Villa's
last three games, when it really mattered, the forward may have convinced
Souness otherwise.
In their
biggest win of the season on Tuesday night against Arsenal, the 24-year-old
dragged his boyhood club through 90 minutes of torture to a vital three points.
Yes, he is
silky. Yes, he is easy on the eye, and yes, he does go down when prompted. But
Grealish is routinely Villa's top runner, is ice cold in the final third and
tight areas, and is happy to throw himself into the physical battle rather than
slalom around defenders. It is steel, not fragility, and he has showed all of
this and more in recent games.
It
culminated in his man-of-the-match performance on Tuesday, his eighth of the
season. Only Kevin De Bruyne, Adama Traore and Sadio Mane have more.
His future
is anyone's guess, but whoever gets Grealish next season, if indeed he does
leave Villa, they will be getting a player full of grit, not just technique.
Speaking
after Aston Villa's 2-0 defeat by Liverpool earlier this month, Greame Souness
told Sky Sports he had been taken in by Grealish's 'silky skills' but
was generally unsure of the Aston Villa captain's ability to play at the
highest level.
He said:
"He has got quality but do the top teams carry passengers when they don't
have the ball? No - they don't have players that stand with their hands on
their hips when they lose the ball. Everyone rolls their sleeves up to be the
first, second or third one to press. That is something that is not in his game
right now.
"As an
old midfield player, would I have liked to play against him? I would have loved
to have played against him.
"He
allows me to get close to him, get physical with him. I don't want to play Paul
Scholes, Xavi or Andres Iniesta. They are too quick - they pop it off in one or
two touches. I want to play against people like him - he would allow me to mess
him around."
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