The RJW63 Official Jack Grealish Appreciation Thread

[7392craig]

15 minutes ago, Cjay said:

Hernandez mate by quite a distance, only player with over 100 chances created in the league and most per game by some way, think Norwood is 2nd with about 95, Hernandez is on 115 i think, Grealish is miles down overall (but obviously has had injuries tbf), quite high per game i think, top 10, but last stat i saw the top 5 per game were Hernandez, Buendia, Benrahma, Norwood and someone random, cant remember who, Ben Marshall maybe. 

 

Hernandez is a great player. But not a chance I’d swap Grealish for him. Hernandez performs incredibly in a good team. Jack can drag a poor team through on his own. Also those stats don’t help much as Grealish has missed so many games this season.

[The Hawk]

12 hours ago, 7392craig said:

I never brought it up because of the incident in the last game, it’s something I’ve seen in him the last couple of seasons, which I wasn’t too concerned about until he became captain. It’s probably best to agree to disagree on this. I just personally feel the captain should hold himself to higher standards than his team mates and be the one who can keep a clear head.

If he was getting red cards every second week I’d agree, but he’s not. 

[wilko154]

 

 

[The Fun Factory]

Sorry goal of the season had to be Hutton's for the sheer insanity of it all.

[Stevo985]

20 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Have to be honest, I kinda get the sense Jack is captain in name only.

For me, the leader on the pitch is Mings, I watched the Leeds game back the other night and Mings was front and centre for every flashpoint, calming the situation down with his majestic 8 foot frame.

Even when Adomah 'scored' and started giving some shit to Jansson, it was Mings who was there first to step in.

 

I love Jack, but I think I love Mings even more.

 

 

Maybe true,

but part of the reason for giving Jack the armband, I'm guessing, is to give him more responsibility and continue his journey of "growing up".

And have to say it seems to have worked a treat.

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, wilko154 said:

 

 

Jack himself has replied to this disagreeing with it  

[Mazrim]

Hernandez isn't fit to inflate Jack's Hippy Crack balloons.

[Lord Willard]

Nominated for player of the month

[MotoMkali]

17 hours ago, Cjay said:

Hernandez mate by quite a distance, only player with over 100 chances created in the league and most per game by some way, think Norwood is 2nd with about 95, Hernandez is on 115 i think, Grealish is miles down overall (but obviously has had injuries tbf), quite high per game i think, top 10, but last stat i saw the top 5 per game were Hernandez, Buendia, Benrahma, Norwood and someone random, cant remember who, Ben Marshall maybe. 

 

Grealish is currently 2nd in key passes per game behind hernandez. But he was playing with Bruce for ages which obviously reduces those stats.

 

The main thing is that Grealish is the only player with 2 key passes per game and a pass percentage of 88%.

 

He also leads the league in fouls won with many of them being potential career enders. Even in the playoffs final last year Grealish probably had 2 challenges on him which were straight red. 

[villanmac]

Chances created is a load of bollocks, things like playing on the wing vrs playing in the middle, taking set pieces etc. all swing it.

There must be some reason Leeds fans have this weird obsession with Grealish (which they had well before Sunday's game).

[Keyblade]

1 hour ago, villanmac said:

Chances created is a load of bollocks, things like playing on the wing vrs playing in the middle, taking set pieces etc. all swing it.

There must be some reason Leeds fans have this weird obsession with Grealish (which they had well before Sunday's game).

It's jealousy just like it is for most other fans. Who wouldn't want to have a once in a generation talent come out of their academy?

[Tomaszk]

1 hour ago, villanmac said:

There must be some reason Leeds fans have this weird obsession with Grealish (which they had well before Sunday's game).

It's everyone with Grealish. And yeah, it's jealousy. Wolves are having their best season in literally 40 years and their fans are obsessed with him. Funny.

[villa89]

4 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Sorry goal of the season had to be Hutton's for the sheer insanity of it all.

It's Mcginn's volley. Probably the Villa goal of the decade.

[TRO]

On 30/04/2019 at 00:30, Tomaszk said:

They are so scared of him it's brilliant.

It is if we end up winning games like we have?

but it also means that our other players should have more space to play in.....hope they use it to full use.?

Edited May 2, 2019 by TRO

[TRO]

I have a lot of thoughts buzzing in my head about Jack.

He does seem like public Enemy No.1 at Present and I think there are issues on both sides.

Its not easy to always  differentiate between a foul and a robust tackle in full flight,not always anyway and it is up to the referee to make that judgement...sigh!!!

Wasn't it Pierluigi Collina who famously/infamously said to a player who got fouled and complained...."well go down and then I can make the call....make it easier for me"

Jack is in the middle of a "rock and a hard place"....I would like to see him act a bit cuter like some of his peers....some in the top flight have to be cute, else they would be black and blue.

But his critics need to also understand stopping him from playing through illicit means is not acceptable either...... clattering players is Fouling and he gets clattered quite regularly.....clattering is NOT tackling....I think we all know a good tackler when we see one.

Jack illustrated against Rotherham that he can be closed down and shoulder barged and out numbered and still not go to ground, because he is not being fouled...yes he did score....but it is not acceptable to stop him by foul means and call it "stopping him" with legitimacy.

Opposing fans need to get used to the realities of stopping players outside of fair play.......that's what we have officials for......It just as frustrating for us when that happens and we ( as a team)can't reap the benefit from Jacks talent fairly.

 

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by TRO

[KenjiOgiwara]

Great players are always controversial. Either you hate them or you adore them. There's never been a middle ground on that. 

Unless you're Messi. Everyone likes Messi. 

Edited May 2, 2019 by KenjiOgiwara

[Mic09]

29 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Great players are always controversial. Either you hate them or you adore them. There's never been a middle ground on that. 

Unless you're Messi. Everyone likes Messi. 

Ronaldo doesn't 

[TheMelvillan]

10 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

Ronaldo doesn't 

Liverpool finds are kinda on the fence right now too

[Mazrim]

I think we can do better than that.

[Farlz]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6992541/Why-Jack-Grealish-tears-scoring-goal-dreams-punched-Birmingham-fan.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490

Quote

Jack Grealish is sitting in a quiet, spartan room at the Aston Villa training ground but his mind is taking him back to a day of chaos and tumult and joy.

It is taking him back to a private box at St Andrew's on March 10, an hour or more after he had been punched by a Birmingham City fan who had invaded the pitch. He can still feel the tears that flowed down his cheeks.

He was not crying because of the punch. 'I couldn't care less about that,' he says. He was crying because he was telling his mum that in the moment when he did something he had wanted to do his whole life and scored against Villa's greatest rivals, he found himself thinking about the tragedy that shaped his character. He found himself thinking about his brother, Keelan.

What happened more than 19 years ago is still fresh in his memory. Grealish's dad, Kevin, had gone to Wembley to watch Villa play Bolton Wanderers in the 2000 FA Cup semi-final and Grealish was at home with his mum, his baby brother, who was nine months old, and two cousins who were staying the night, when the little boy fell victim to cot death.

'I was only four,' says Grealish. 'People say they don't remember stuff from when they're little but I remember every part of it. I remember during the night, I remember my mum crying her eyes out and being on the floor in her bedroom when the ambulance came. At the time, you don't really understand but as you get older...

'It's been a long time. My brother would be 20 in June. When I scored at Blues, I went up to the private boxes after and spoke to my mum. There was a picture of me on the floor with my head in my hands. I started crying with my family.

'I thought of my little brother. You always think they're looking down on you. I've wanted to score against Blues for my whole life and I just felt like, at the time, he was there with me. And that was the reason why I scored.'

In the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Grealish built a reputation as a young man who lived his life to the full. Grealish is one of those players who exudes energy and vitality and confidence. A life force like his is often a partner to a great grief.

So there were times when the gifted attacking midfielder, commonly regarded as the best player outside the Premier League, incurred the wrath of Villa managers for partying too hard. There were times when they had to, as the diplomatic parlance of football club discipline goes, 'remind him of his responsibilities'.

His social life fell under the public gaze when he was pictured flat on his back on a street in Tenerife when he was a 19-year-old on a lads' summer holiday. The publicity was a reminder of the way we ask young footballers to sacrifice their youth and eschew norms of teenage behaviour for our entertainment.

His confidence and his strut and his talent have made him a target for opposing fans but he has the kind of even temperament that means it does not affect him. Age has helped, too.

The 23-year-old man who sits here in the room at Bodymoor Heath on the outskirts of the city as he prepares to lead Villa into the Championship play-offs next week cuts an altogether more mature figure than the youth who was criticised for being so callow.

Dean Smith, the Villa boss, who has masterminded the club's late-season surge into the top six, made him club captain eight weeks ago.

'It was a dream come true,' says Grealish. 'I got out of the training ground and phoned my mum and my dad and I think my dad got a bit emotional actually.'

The captaincy was a sign of the trust Smith has in Grealish, the trust Grealish has earned. 'As you get older, you get wiser,' says Grealish. 

'I'm still a young kid now and I don't want to say that I've fully matured yet, because I haven't. I'm only 23. But I do feel like I've been around for quite a while.

'Even now, I'm not going to say I don't go out any more - I still do - but you just have to pick the right times to do it and know that you're in the public eye and everyone's watching you. I can see it from everyone's point of view. You have responsibilities and you are role models to kids. That comes with the job.

'That picture in Tenerife... I was just a kid. Three months before that, I could go anywhere, I could do whatever I wanted, because I wasn't even playing. Then within two or three months I'd played in an FA Cup semi-final and done well, played in the FA Cup final and people were talking about me playing for England. Three months before that, I couldn't even get in the team.

'The attention around the Tenerife thing was a massive shock at the time. I was just on a lads' holiday with a few friends having fun and the next thing you know I'm getting a call off someone at Villa and it's just everywhere, this photo.

'I've grown up from that now and I think I've put it behind me. I wouldn't change what I do for the world - every single day I'm lucky to be doing what I'm doing. I'm just enjoying my football. I'm loving playing for the manager and with this group of players.'

Grealish was born in Birmingham and grew up in Solihull where he still lives. His entire family are Villa fans. 'Not one Bluenose,' he says. 'Usually it's half and half or 75 per cent but there's only Villa in my house. Aunts and uncles, cousins - all Villa.'

He crosses his fingers, holding them up. 'I'm like this with my family,' he says. 'I'm the biggest family person you'll meet. My nan passed away last Friday and that broke my dad's heart. I've been wearing a message under my shirt in games saying: 'Rest in Peace Nan' but I haven't got round to scoring yet.'

It is his dream to take Villa back up to the Premier League but Villa fans know that if the team fall short, he will probably leave. Grealish wants to play for England and he mentions Gareth Southgate's recent comments that suggested that would not happen while he was in the Championship.

'I can half understand that,' he says. 'He can't really judge me against someone else in my position if they are playing against Manchester Uniteds every week and I'm playing in the Championship.

'I'm 23 now and I'm not getting any younger. I want to challenge myself, I'm desperate to play in the Premier League and I want to play for England. So for me personally, I think this is the year we've got to get promoted really.'

Handing the Villa captaincy to Grealish, who was heavily linked with a move to Tottenham last summer and will attract more suitors in the months ahead, was not a gimmick. Smith is not the type for gimmicks. It was a gesture of recognition for someone who is growing up fast.

'It was also because I think the manager likes me,' says Grealish. 'He's a Villa fan and he knows how proud I am to play for the club. I think he knew how proud I'd be to captain the club.'

And Grealish repaid Smith's faith immediately by playing a starring role in the 4-0 demolition of Derby County in his first match with the armband and then reacting with breathtaking equanimity when he was attacked by pitch invader Paul Mitchell in the ninth minute of the Second City derby.

Grealish did not react when Mitchell launched his assault. He did not seek to retaliate. He is not a hot-head like that. Maybe it comes from spending his youth as a precocious talent targeted by other teams. Still, his restraint was hugely impressive.

The force of the blow knocked him to the floor but he just sat on the turf and laughed while Mitchell was dragged away. The incident provoked horror and hand-wringing but not from Grealish.

'I phoned my parents after the game and they were so emotional,' says Grealish. 'My mum said: 'Jack, imagine if he had something on him' and he easily could have done. Obviously I'm their son and I'd be the same if I had a son and someone had done that. But I couldn't care less.

'At the time, I was arguing with one of their players. I told him he was crap or something and the next thing I know, I feel this whack from behind and I swear that the last thing I would have thought was that it was a fan. I just thought it was a player. Then I turned round and I saw everyone grabbing him and I started laughing.

'I was thinking: "This guy, I'd hate to be him". If you've got to resort to doing that... Some of the stuff I see fans doing nowadays, racially abusing players, coming on to the pitch, punching players. I don't see how you can get that low or that psyched up.

'What good would it have done if I had jumped up and tried to go for him? I would have looked more of an idiot. I sat on the floor and laughed. I got in at half-time and I was sitting there and thinking: "Jack, please, you have to score, you can't come off this pitch without scoring." And it was 1-0. And it was just my goal that settled it. After the game, that was the best feeling ever.'

When Grealish celebrated his winner with the Villa supporters, an irate steward started kneeing him in the side in the midst of the bedlam. 'He must have been a Blues fan and fuming,' says Grealish. Then, in the aftermath of the match, one Twitter user even referenced Keelan's death in a twisted attempt to get at Grealish. Once again, it didn't work.

'You know what, I like to think that he doesn't mean it,' says Grealish. 'He has obviously got some big problems if he has to say that because I genuinely wouldn't say that to my worst enemy, never mind someone who scored against my football team.

'That's just the way some people are nowadays. The fans speaking about it or a fan punching me doesn't bother me. Nowadays, people do stuff just to get in the limelight.

'All these people racially abusing people, that say stuff about people's families, I don't think they actually mean it. They're just saying it to get a reaction and get attention. I just try to think it doesn't matter. 

'Raheem Sterling, when he scored against Montenegro, he came out and cupped his hands to his ears to the people who had been abusing him and I thought: "That's good, man." It made me smile. That's the best way to deal with it.'

The victory over Birmingham came close to the start of a record-breaking club sequence of 10 successive victories that coincided both with Grealish's return to the side after injury and his taking the captaincy. They have not lost since February 16 and will go into next Saturday's play-off semi-final against either West Brom or Leeds with momentum very much on their side.

They fell at the final hurdle last season, losing in the play-off final to Fulham, and they were languishing in the bottom half of the table in mid-season. Now, though, Grealish feels Villa, who play Norwich in their last game of the regular season on Sunday, are equipped to succeed where they failed 12 months ago.

'We've come alive at the right time,' says Grealish. 'We haven't lost since West Brom on February 16 so it would probably be nice to get West Brom in the play-off semi-final, knowing we haven't been beaten since then. We'll take any game that comes and go into it with high confidence.

'The lads are just flying at the moment. So much confidence. I've never been in a team, even when I was playing with Delph and Benteke, where I just feel we're never going to get beat. I think all the boys are all the same: we don't care who we play.

'The manager has brought players in who seem to play without fear. Nothing bothers them. We're all young, we're all desperate to try and improve and try and impress and we just go out and play football and nothing stands in our way.

'All I'm thinking about is getting promoted with Villa. We have got the perfect manager and the perfect team. We have got more of a chance than we had last year. This year, I feel something different here. Every game we go in to, I feel like we're going to win it. I feel like this is going to be our year.'

Edited May 4, 2019 by Farlz