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All summer long we’ve heard nothing except that Aston Villa will not sell Jack Grealish to Tottenham Hotspur on the cheap. The midlands club values the 22 year old Grealish at £40m, but have a huge Financial Fair Play deficit that they need to make up this summer, and selling Grealish could make a huge dent in that.
Villa has new owners and are now resisting calls to sell their stars, and manager Steve Bruce has apparently been assured that there won’t be a fire sale at Villa Park this summer.
“The one thing that the new owners have said it that nobody is for sale. That’s music to my ears. We don’t want to lose our best players.
“We all know in football that unfortunately these things do happen, but we will now be doing our utmost to make sure these things do not happen and not let them go anywhere.”
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case for Grealish — the Birmingham Mail are now reporting that Spurs could have him for a bid of “£25m or more.”
Now that’s more like it! I don’t think anyone was expecting Daniel Levy to bid £40m for Grealish, and Spurs were probably hoping to get him for under £20m, which would be highway robbery.
But £25m for a young player who was very good in the Championship and is ready for a step up feels both fair and reasonable. It also would mark a concession on the part of Villa, who surely would like to get things settled here soon. (That goes similarly for Spurs.)
Naturally, this is a report from the Villa-affiliated media, and as far as we know Spurs have yet to actually make a bid. Still, considering Grealish is likely to be on stupid cheap wages initially, I’d feel much better about a £25m bid for him than a £35m bid. You?