The RJW63 Official Jack Grealish Appreciation Thread

[Lord Willard]

40 minutes ago, vreitti said:

Apart from the two belters against us, does he really score that many free kicks? 

He is probably the best dead ball specialist in England and could be one of the best in Europe he is that good at them. He doesn't have to score every free kick youre forgetting, corners or indirect freekicks. Theyre pretty much perfect to attack everytime. 

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by Lord Willard

[7392craig]

11 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

He is probably the best dead ball specialist in England and could be one of the best in Europe he is that good at them. He doesn't have to score every free kick youre forgetting, corners or indirect freekicks. Theyre pretty much perfect to attack everytime. 

 

His corners are lethal, every one looks dangerous. I’d love him, but not sure where we’d put him with SJM, Dougie and Sanson.

[mjmooney]

25 minutes ago, 7392craig said:

His corners are lethal, every one looks dangerous. I’d love him, but not sure where we’d put him with SJM, Dougie and Sanson.

Bring him on for special team set pieces.   

 

[HalfTimePost]

1 hour ago, vreitti said:

Apart from the two belters against us, does he really score that many free kicks? 

Back in November (after our game) JWP had scored 8 goals from free kicks, putting him 12th all time in Direct FreeKicks scored in the Premier league according to the BBC. The Premier League site now has him on 10, putting him joint 7th all time on that BBC list, one behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

This season he scored 4, putting him two seasons off equalling David Beckhams record of 18. (According to the Premier League statistics site, no other player scored more than 1 Free Kick this season.)

So yeah, JWP is pretty damn good at Freekicks.

But the PL has a gap for a great dead ball specialist in general. Ronaldo has scored 56 Free Kick (league) goals, allegedly converting 5% of all free kicks he's taken. With Messi just behind at 55 (league, 66 career) although converting much more than CR7 at 9.3%. So Jack needs to bring Messi to VP if he wants a truly great free kick taker - as the Premier League just doesn't have one at the moment (or ever!)

Edited June 5, 2021 by HalfTimePost

[vreitti]

16 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

Back in November (after our game) JWP had scored 8 goals from free kicks, putting him 12th all time in Direct FreeKicks scored in the Premier league according to the BBC. The Premier League site now has him on 10, putting him joint 7th all time on that BBC list, one behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

This season he scored 4, putting him two seasons off equalling David Beckhams record of 18. (According to the Premier League statistics site, no other player scored more than 1 Free Kick this season.)

So yeah, JWP is pretty damn good at Freekicks.

But the PL has a gap for a great dead ball specialist in general. Ronaldo has scored 56 Free Kick (league) goals, allegedly converting 5% of all free kicks he's taken. With Messi just behind at 55 (league, 66 career) although converting much more than CR7 at 9.3%. So Jack needs to bring Messi to VP if he wants a truly great free kick taker - as the Premier League just doesn't have one at the moment (or ever!)

So in fact he's scored in average, roughly 1 free kick per season. Irrespective of PL records, it's certainly a false narrative then that he scores 'a lot of free kicks', imho. 

I'm not disputing his great kicking technique, passing ability or awesome deliveries in general. Think he'd be fine addition to the squad. Also didn't realize he's only 26. 

[HKP90]

Interesting quote from Jack about his injury.

 “It’s not shin splints actually, it’s different to that, it was like a bit of stress on my shin, it’s a different type of injury.”

 

[birdman]

58 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Interesting quote from Jack about his injury.

 “It’s not shin splints actually, it’s different to that, it was like a bit of stress on my shin, it’s a different type of injury.”

 

Yeah he said this after the friendly the other day. Obviously still managing the issue but hopefully it will heal properly in time! 

[Indigo]

Can't read too much into YouTube videos but he looks a player this fella.

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by Indigo

[Jas10]

 

[Hank Scorpio]

Quote

 

Up and down the motorway they would go. Kevin Grealish at the wheel with his newly turned 18-year-old son Jack restlessly fidgeting away in the passenger seat beside him.

Trips like these had become the norm over the years, as when Aston Villa’s youth teams were playing away from home, Grealish Snr would offer an alternative ride to the team bus.

 

 

[MotoMkali]

6 hours ago, 7392craig said:

His corners are lethal, every one looks dangerous. I’d love him, but not sure where we’d put him with SJM, Dougie and Sanson.

He's better than Mcginn but a lot. 

[foreveryoung]

6 hours ago, HalfTimePost said:

Back in November (after our game) JWP had scored 8 goals from free kicks, putting him 12th all time in Direct FreeKicks scored in the Premier league according to the BBC. The Premier League site now has him on 10, putting him joint 7th all time on that BBC list, one behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

This season he scored 4, putting him two seasons off equalling David Beckhams record of 18. (According to the Premier League statistics site, no other player scored more than 1 Free Kick this season.)

So yeah, JWP is pretty damn good at Freekicks.

But the PL has a gap for a great dead ball specialist in general. Ronaldo has scored 56 Free Kick (league) goals, allegedly converting 5% of all free kicks he's taken. With Messi just behind at 55 (league, 66 career) although converting much more than CR7 at 9.3%. So Jack needs to bring Messi to VP if he wants a truly great free kick taker - as the Premier League just doesn't have one at the moment (or ever!)

Shame JWP is shit at everything else. Kinda reminds me of Rory Delap with his throws.

[Dave-R]

52 minutes ago, Pissflaps said:

Up and down the motorway they would go. Kevin Grealish at the wheel with his newly turned 18-year-old son Jack restlessly fidgeting away in the passenger seat beside him.

Trips like these had become the norm over the years, as when Aston Villa’s youth teams were playing away from home, Grealish Snr would offer an alternative ride to the team bus.

“Sometimes he was the only dad at away games when I was a kid,” the now-Villa captain told The Athletic.

However, this particular journey was special and unique.

Hopping onto the M42 from their Solihull home, the pair would bond over typical father-son conversations for an hour until they arrived at their destination.

Grealish Jnr had to put up with Blondie’s Greatest Hits played far too many times for his liking. Something stuck, though, as now whenever the pair are together before a match they always play “Atomic” to get the attacker in the mood.

These were the very early days in Grealish’s career where he was relatively unknown. To give him a taste of first-team football, he was sent on loan to Notts County in League One.

Unable to drive back then, England’s No.7 relied on his dad to ferry him around.

“Kevin is a massive supporter of Jack,” ex-Notts County boss Shaun Derry says. It is why the first phone call Grealish made when he made it into the 26-man squad for the European Championship was to his most loyal follower, just like it was when he was appointed Villa captain.

Walking out at Wembley in the tournament later this month will also be a special moment and some story for those who watched him learning his trade in the third tier.

Grealish fever is in full flow as his exciting performances are starting to grip a nation — and once again interest Manchester City.

But it was the days at Meadow Lane that helped shape him.

The story of why Notts County, a then relegation-threatened League One side, moved for the talented teen who was then a part of the Republic of Ireland youth set-up, is largely untold.

Chris Kiwomya, the manager who signed Grealish up for the season, was sacked shortly after his arrival.

Kiwomya had eyed up Grealish for some time in advance. When Grealish starred during Villa’s NextGen Series win in 2013, Kiwomya was there watching his nephew Alex, then a Chelsea player, who was a part of the team that lost to Villa in the final.

The boss liked what he saw and Grealish fancied his chances of regular game-time as Paul Lambert was not ready to promote him into the first-team at Villa.

 

A young Grealish impressed on loan at  appealed as it wasn’t too far away from his family base in Solihull. The decision was then made to take Grealish out of his digs in Sutton Coldfield and operate between hotel life and living back home.

That Notts County could not provide any temporary accommodation for his stay now feels like an obstacle when clubs would bend over backwards to get a player like Grealish through the door.

The landscape could have changed considerably just months into his stay as higher-profile offers arrived from elsewhere, but first Grealish had to make his mark.

Unlike his England team-mate, Harry Kane, who would sit quietly in the canteen during his loan spells in the lower divisions before progressing through at Tottenham, Grealish was confident enough to mingle.

He struck up relationships with team-mates both young and old.

Captain Alan Sheehan took him under his wing and offered some protection down the left side on matchdays.

“I loved him. I loved everything about him. The way he carried himself on and off the pitch. He was always confident but never arrogant,” Sheehan said.

Jamal Campbell-Ryce, an experienced striker at the time, quickly warmed to him.

“Honestly, some of the stuff I used to see in training from him, and at such a young and tender age…” he recalls. “He should be a top-three or top-four player quite easily.”

Perhaps the bond he formed with fellow loanee, Callum McGregor, was the strongest of the lot.

“From day one, you could see that Jack had a lot of potential,” the Celtic midfielder said recently. “He would dribble past people as if he was just jogging.”

It’s no surprise that even then he was drawing regular — and often heavy — challenges from opponents.

On his debut, former Villa youth-team friend, Samir Carruthers, crunched into him just seconds after his first touch in professional football.

It set the tone for years of individual targeting from opponents who first identified Grealish as Notts County’s danger man, and now do the same for Villa.

In League One, defenders would kick him from pillar to post. There were subsequent square-ups and many heated exchanges, but with every challenge he’d get back up and go again.

Derry, who replaced Kiwomya, now speaks so highly of him, but admits there were times where, naturally, as an 18-year-old breaking into the men’s game, he did things that were frustrating. He would appear on the training pitch with his bootlaces undone and there was the infamous incident of Grealish turning up to a Christmas fixture in his own clothes rather than a club tracksuit. A raging Derry found it in him to eventually laugh it off.

Other attackers in the England squad such as Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka were fast-tracked into their respective club teams without a spell of learning out on loan. Lambert, the boss of Villa back in 2013-14, didn’t believe Grealish was ready for the first-team back then though.

Whether he was right or wrong, the experiences the attacker subsequently gained were invaluable. He had to be told on multiple occasions that his role involved more than getting on the ball and running at defenders.

He played 40 games, scoring five goals and setting up seven more. But it was the way he lifted supporters off their seats that made a difference. There was also a show of loyalty just four months into the season that endeared him in the hearts of those at Notts County.

His kicks, tricks and fancy flicks had inevitably reached a wider audience as soon as he started performing.

Notts County were struggling to pull it all together at the time. They were heading for League Two and it looked for all the money that Grealish would have a relegation on his CV in the months ahead.

With that in mind, four promotion-chasing League One clubs offered him the chance to swap a bottom-three scrap with an exciting push for the Championship in the winter transfer window.

One of those was Peterborough United, a club willing to provide Grealish with an apartment during his stay.

A more comfortable living arrangement would end either the nights in Nottingham spent at a hotel or back home in Solihull.

Incredibly, there was even an offer from Birmingham City to take him on loan, The Athletic can reveal.

Lee Clark, a manager with an eye for talented young players, wanted him on board, but the reaction from Grealish’s camp suggested there was more chance of him taking up Irish dancing for six months than moving in that direction.

Bitter rivals Birmingham were politely told to “do one” and all other offers were respectfully declined.

The accommodation issue never was resolved but staying loyal helped create a happy ending for all.

In what has since been described as one of Notts County’s greatest-ever escapes, Grealish played a leading role in the team winning six of the last eight games to secure survival.

He also came through a final-day showdown at Oldham Athletic that helped prepare him for big games in the future.

“During the first half, Jack was told in no uncertain terms that he needed to do this, needed to do that, he needed to track back and make tackles,” Greg Abbott, the former assistant manager told the Nottingham Post.

“I had to make him realise just how big of a player he was for us and make him understand just how big of a day it was for the club.

“Up until that point, he just wasn’t getting it. He just wanted to get the ball and play. That’s how much out of his depth he was in terms of his age and experience.

“The simple fact is that without Jack, we lose the game, no question about it. We needed everybody at their best. He came out for the second half and played a major part in getting that result. But I’ve got to be honest, at one point, I thought the importance of the day, what was riding on it, was just going to be too much for him.”

Since then, Grealish has flourished in the moments that matter for Villa. He has made a healthy habit out of proving people wrong, too, and every year since 2017 has been heading in an upwards trajectory.

Wembley will be his new stage for the summer and having starred there now on multiple occasions — an FA Cup semi-final and two play-off finals — it’s starting to feel like home.

For Kevin, he’ll be back on the motorway in the weeks ahead, only this time it’s Solihull to London. For the Euros. With his son as England’s poster boy.

[Dave-R]

2 hours ago, Jas10 said:

 

I personally think he will be with us till he can no longer kick a ball.

Or someone comes in and offers there club to us, because so long as our Owners are here then I do not see him ever being sold so long as he is the main man and bossing the game at his fav club.

It's like Pep said a while back last season: The bigger clubs may want Jack like I would like to see him at City, but actually getting him is something totally different as Villa and there Owners would want way to much than any club could afford or would be mad enough to buy him.

[Hank Scorpio]

49 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

I'm not sure why the font is so huge when it pasted it. I'm blaming my phone

[icouldtelltheworld]

1 hour ago, foreveryoung said:

Shame JWP is shit at everything else. Kinda reminds me of Rory Delap with his throws.

I wouldn't say he's shit, but he's really not the type of player we're missing in midfield and I doubt many would want him signed if it weren't for his set pieces. 

Anyway, back on topic: that Grealish lad is some player isn't he? Stunningly handsome too 

[HongKongVillan]

I spits my pint in laughter reading the bit on SHA

[villa4europe]

Seen a journo on twitter saying that villa have pulled ahead in the buendia race cos Norwichs valuation of the player is higher than Arsenal's 

Arsenal will instead focus on buying Jack Grealish

Edu's face when he sees villas valuation of grelaish 

[7392craig]

2 hours ago, MotoMkali said:

He's better than Mcginn but a lot. 

McGinn hasn’t lived up to his own standards this year, but I’m a big fan. I wouldn’t want him to go anywhere.

[MotoMkali]

2 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

Shame JWP is shit at everything else. Kinda reminds me of Rory Delap with his throws.

He is literally better than Mcginn at everything but dribbling, fouling and the number of long passes he completes.