Villa journalist drops huge Grealish transfer claim amid £100m bid talk | OneFootball

Express and Star journalist Luke Hatfield insists that Jack Grealish will not hand in a transfer request to force a move to Manchester City this summer.

The England international has been heavily linked with a potential move to the Etihad Stadium this summer.

Reports have claimed that City have tabled a bid worth £100m to extricate Grealish from Villa Park and The Athletic claims that the deal is at an advanced stage, with Pep Guardiola looking to strengthen his squad after winning last season’s Premier League title.

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Grealish has emerged as a genuinely elite player during his time with Villa and enjoyed a fabulous season in 2020/21 prior to sustaining a major injury to his shin bone.

The 25-year-old made 27 appearances in all competitions, scoring seven goals and laying on 12 assists.

Grealish then played a major role in England’s run to the Euro 2020 final, laying on two assists, against both the Czech Republic and Germany.

Hatfield believes that he will remain respectful to Villa and does not think that he will make any moves to force a deal through.

Speaking to Football FanCast, he said: “I don’t think Grealish would out and out throw his toys out of the pram and refuse to play for Villa, put it that way. We’ve seen that with some protracted transfers before where the player’s on a lengthy deal and he ends up saying ‘well, I’m not going to play for you then, I’ll just sit here and run out the contract’, and it gets very awkward.

“The issue is with Grealish, he’s club captain, he’s a Villa fan, a boyhood Villain, I don’t think he would ever put the club in that kind of position.

“I think there’s probably an agreement to be had there between the player and the club where if the player feels that a move is right, that the club would agree as long as the money was right as well.”