Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish has been one of the hottest names in football since his side’s return to the Premier League at the end of the 2018-19 season. Grealish’s inspired performances have seen the talented midfielder earn an England debut which has capped off what has been a tremendous 12-months for the Villa skipper. Grealish’s fine form saw him become relentlessly linked with a move to Premier League giants Manchester United, however, after a summer of transfer turmoil within the Reds’ hierarchy, any proposed deal failed to materialise.
But just how close did the talented Englishman come to making a sensational switch to Old Trafford during the summer?
Grealish, 25, has spent his entire career with Villa after signing up to their youth academy all the way back in 2001 and after forcing his way through his boyhood club’s ranks, Grealish has gone on to feature in a total of 195 senior matches in all competitions.
After being directly involved in 67 goals including a 2019-20 final-day goal to keep Villa in England’s top-flight, Grealish has well established himself as a fan-favourite as well as enjoying a dramatic rise to the top of English football which even earned him his recent international debut.
However, as much as the Villa faithful will love seeing their main-man performing at the highest level, they will be all too aware that their captain’s form could come at a price.
All throughout the summer and in fact, even further back in time than that, Grealish has been strongly linked with a move away from Villa Park with Premier League giants United seemingly the odds on favourites to land the 25-year-old.
Despite a summer of speculation, Grealish remained a Villa player and although he recently signed a bumper new deal with his beloved Villains, Grealish’s long-term future continues to be speculated.
Stretty News has obtained exclusive information from a close source who has revealed just how close Grealish came to departing Villa in favour of United during the summer.
It is our understanding that United were only ever really interested in landing Borussia Dortmund attacker Jadon Sancho and despite actually being offered the Villa captain, United’s hierarchy turned the chance to bring him to Old Trafford down.
United’s failure to take Dortmund’s August deadline seriously has been described to us as “Unbelievable arrogance and ignorance.”
It is understood that around £80m would have been enough to lure Grealish away from Villa Park but with the club’s decision makers dead-set on signing Sancho, they were unwilling to allocate such a large sum of money elsewhere.
Stretty News have been advised that Grealish’s situation has now drastically changed, with United now way down in the pecking order to land Villa’s talented midfielder.
With clubs now seemingly in a more financial stable state due to the counter-measures put in place to cushion the devastation of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Grealish is now a man in hot demand in a transfer situation that has been described to us as “very wanted by top clubs.”
We understand that Grealish is aware of just how much interest he has from a plethora of top tier clubs and is in the process of weighing up where his next move could be.
It is has been made clear to us that Villa’s captain will not rush into making any decision regarding his long-term future and whilst he represents Villa, will remain committed to ensuring he gives his all to the club who has given him so much.
Read more: Richarlison reacts to dangerous red card tackle from Man Utd striker Edinson Cavani