More Positives Than Negatives Now The Grealish Saga Finally Comes To An End - Villa Continue Looking Up

Finally it’s over. The whole ‘will he, won’t he, has he’ Jack Grealish saga is at an end as we now have confirmation that he has completed his big money move to Manchester City.

Thanks for the memories, @JackGrealish. pic.twitter.com/yQ1RYPmiU3

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 5, 2021

There’s understandably huge frustration and disappointment from Villans at seeing our star man move on given the upward curve we are on, but there’s also been a lot of nonsense and some disgraceful reactions from the vocal minority hiding behind their anonymity on social media. The simple fact is, it’s a phenomenal deal from our perspective.

It allows us to round the squad out better and become a fuller threat that simply doesn’t rely on going through Jack for everything and I dare say we can see that already given the captures we have made this summer on an attacking front. We’ll be less predictable in the process once everyone has settled in and adjusted. It’s win, win in my mind even though I wished Jack was still a part of it moving forward.

Having accepted he was being sold to Spurs following the idiotic ownership of the Good Tweeter, Jack buckled down and got on with things having freely admitted his head had been turned and unfortunately the seed was planted – and who can begrudge a player moving to win trophies and medals?

Our upward curve is just that…upward. We aren’t there yet and there are no guarantees. With or without Jack, our aim for the coming season will at best be a Europa League spot and maybe a Cup. We’re at least two more years off being in a position where we could genuinely say we will be challenging for the lot.

Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow updated supporters this evening on the circumstances surrounding the departure of Jack Grealish.

Here is his broadcast on VillaTV. pic.twitter.com/7wqh5Vs64R

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 5, 2021

We more than helped make Jack the player he is today, and Jack more than played his part in getting us to where we are today – neither owes the other anything. Shake hands, there’s thanks on both sides and move on, there’s no need to throw toys out of a pram.

We improve further from Jack’s sale and we win (and to me it looks like we will given our signings when they are settled). Jack gets what he wants which is almost guaranteed medals and having had two almost identical injury issues, who knows how much that has figured into his thinking here. With us, he gets every minute he can play, at City he knows there will be greater rotation and more rest – he might not like not playing every game or getting more regularly substituted, but he might see the wider benefit of the extra rest.

Even if the deal is £75m on an upfront basis with it rounded to £100m with additional clauses, our transfer spend for this summer is almost zeroed which is a massive position to be in, particularly Financial Fair Play wise, given where we were only a couple of years ago and given our expenditure under NSWE so far.

There are far more positives to this deal than negatives when it comes to the wider picture.

That doesn’t make it any less disappointing and most, if not all, had hoped we’d get back to the pinnacle with Jack wearing the armband – but if we are sensible (and given what we’ve seen from NSWE so far there’s no reason to doubt we won’t be), Jack moving on could be pivotal in us reaching the pinnacle now, possibly slightly ahead of schedule.

Given it was the release clause as speculated, the fact the deal took this long to complete and Jack was in training unlike some others, should tell people how difficult a decision this was for him even though he came out with the ‘dream come true’ line that most players do.

I wish him well and thank him for the part he played in getting us here, but I also hope that even if he gets the medals and trophies he craves, he forlornly watches on as we continue our rise, knowing full well he could’ve continued to be a big part of it, earning legendary Villa status in the process.

Thanks for the memories, you’ll make new ones but so will we.