Recent reports state that Aston Villa’s £30m asking price for Jack Grealish is proving to be a major stumbling block for Newcastle United this summer. While Rafael Benitez remains adamant on bringing in a creative number ten ahead of the 2018/19 season, the Championship midfielder might just be a bit out of the Spaniard’s price range. This leaves most of the top-flight teams including Tottenham Hotspur with a distinct advantage in signing Grealish.
The Villans are ready to undergo a massive restructuring process this summer and the 22-year-old attacking midfielder is one of their best saleable assets. It is expected that the Englishman will be out of the Villa Park soon but the question remains as to where.
Newcastle’s relegation woes were answered with a miraculous touch of the decorated tactician, Rafael Benitez. The former Liverpool boss set up a solid defensive structure to hold off the elite teams and guide his side to the 10th spot of the 2017/18 Premier League table.
After what seems like a miraculous recovery, Benitez has warned the Magpies’ ownership to start taking measures over improving the current squad. Ayoze Perez has filled in as a shadow striker to Dwight Gayle to great effect and contributed with 10 goals and 4 assists. However, the midfield is creatively starved with just Jonjo Shelvey and Mohamed Diame as the starting central options.
Grealish is already well adept at working in a defensive system which relies on fast counter-attacking style of football. He could have been the missing link to make the side tick from any position behind or in the final third.
The 22-year-old’s prospects of being impactful for Tottenham, however, are severely low with players like Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen as cemented starters under Mauricio Pochettino. The Spurs also have Erik Lamela in the squad who can operate from both wide and central locations.
Pochettino is keen on bolstering the squad as well to place a better challenge for silverware next term. The North London side had a good run in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League last term, finishing above Real Madrid in the standings.
However, the team dropped out of the title challenge pretty early in the campaign and got beaten out by Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-finals. The Argentine boss is well aware of the squad depth he would require to finally upstage some of the elite competition in both local and continental fixtures.
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Acquiring Grealish could give him more options to work around and will help give his first-team regulars a breather amidst a hectic top-flight season. Like Newcastle, many of the other interested sides without the financial pedigree is expected to drop out of the race as well.
