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The RJW63 Official Jack Grealish Appreciation Thread

kevangrealish

By kevangrealish
in Other Football

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Woody1000
Woody1000

And here he is, a new addition to the Villa family - Rafe William Woodcock Just remember boys, whatever Jack decides, it’s only football!

birdman
birdman

A while back I smugly declared Jack wouldnt leave Villa this summer and I pledged to donate 20 quid to Acorns if he did. Well, it's very bad karma not to follow that up so seeing as Jack has left the

est1874 Grand Master

est1874

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Oh, fans are so fickle. 

You will all love him if he comes back in his 30's like Young did. 

I haven't wanted anything to do with this thread since he left the club but I was reflecting on this thought myself earlier today and I think it deserves some consideration.

After thinking about it seriously though, I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't be excited about him rejoining the club. 

If he continues to perform at a high level and stays mostly fit then I/we would be stupid to ever be actively against a return, and I'm sure the club would have him back whenever. 

However, I wouldn't celebrate it. I wouldn't want us to chase any such transfer. I wouldn't get excited or want to treat it as the return of some sort of hero.

I would want us to essentially treat him the way he's treated us this summer - without sentimentality. Shrug and say "football's a business innit" and get on with it.

Until then - he can do one 😅

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nick76 Grand Master

nick76

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5 minutes ago, handsworthvilla said:

For what its worth, all my real life Villa friends feel exactly the same way and will always hold Jack in high regard

I’m also a stones throw away from Villa Park, all my real life Villa friends don’t now hold Jack in high regard and the ones I’ve talked to today think Preece’s article was spot on.

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Zatman Grand Master

Zatman

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1 minute ago, nick76 said:

I’m also a stones throw away from Villa Park, all my real life Villa friends don’t now hold Jack in high regard and the ones I’ve talked to today think Preece’s article was spot on.

Was one of them Preece 😉

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DJ_Villain Mentor

DJ_Villain

Posted
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15 minutes ago, handsworthvilla said:

Well I was born a stones throw from VP to a Villa family, and I find the vitriol absolutely baffling, bordering on ridiculous. 

Ignoring for a minute all the things Jack did for the club, anyone with half a brain can see how much Jack and his family love Villa. He was a fan long before he became one of the best players in the world. You could hear it in his voice when he talked about the club and the ground and see it in his face when we won. I've been going to VP since '94 and I've never heard another player come close to having so much genuine love for the club. Who else would describe scoring the winner against Blues as the best day of their life? 

I think people are guilty of over-simplifying situations which they have no real knowledge about. I love Villa just as much as the next person, but if I was 25 and had the whole of the country telling me I had the potential to be the best player in the world, I think I would owe it to myself to try and achieve everything I possibly could. Its about not having regrets. Who wants to look back at 50 and say I could've been the best player in the world, I could've won loads of trophies, but I turned down the opportunities that were offered to me. 

People always over-simplify and make it out as if its always about money because that's a simple narrative and gives them an easy reason to blame the player. They take the human element out of it. If Jack was your brother what would you advise him to do? With a heavy heart I'd probably tell him he owes it to himself to see how good he can actually be, because he'll probably regret it if he didn't 

For what its worth, all my real life Villa friends feel exactly the same way and will always hold Jack in high regard, and hope we get to see him in claret and blue again one day 

I don’t know about you mate… but as a Villa fan, I certainly wouldn’t describe the concept of leaving Villa to join Man City as “a dream come true”

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Wainy316 Grand Master

Wainy316

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5 minutes ago, handsworthvilla said:

Good point actually. I met him at VP once and he was a top bloke as well. Hendrie was sound as well although he did try to chat up my then Mrs on her way to the bathroom

I've had Tony Morley make moves on mine!

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avfc1982am Grand Master

avfc1982am

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1 minute ago, Zatman said:

Didn't Ian Taylor advise Barry about moving to Liverpool 😉🤔

He may well of caught a whiff that Barry was a turncoat, thinking about going and advised him to leave.

That's Tayls for yah. Not just militant but strategic with it 😉

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Fairy In Boots Collaborator

Fairy In Boots

Posted
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1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Jack calling out Preece for being the clueless journalist that he is. 

Preece got zero inside knowledge. He is just a fan speculating. 

Where is your portfolio of scoops? 

51 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

'Factually'.

Here is the whole article. I have bolded the bits in it which are actual facts:

'There was a real smugness and arrogance to Jack Grealish that was quite distasteful as he sat in a sports hall at St George's Park as he spoke to ITV's Gabriel Clarke ahead of England's 4-0 win in Hungary.

The former Aston Villa captain was no longer this innocent yet totally engaging footballer Villa fans idolised. In fact, the 25-year-old was quite frankly unrecognisable as he delivered some painful and, to some extent, insulting words about his boyhood club.

Clarke asked him if he ever thought that the £100million clause would be met and, as if staying at Villa would have been a total inconvenience for him, delivered the most telling of comments.

"Maybe, yeah," Grealish outlined with brutal honesty. "That's why we had it put in..."

Then there was a gasp, as if Grealish had to backtrack knowing that ice-cold statement lacked total respect to Aston Villa Football Club. It irked and angered Villa fans, I know it did. It's fact, I get that, but you don't spill it and deliver it the way he did knowing millions will be hanging onto his every word.

Grealish may as well have tweeted out, 'My city. My club. My release clause' just 12 months ago when he signed his five-year deal to become Villa's highest-paid player in the club's history. He also believed in Villa's project, or so he said, before engineering a move 11 months later.

'I couldn't wait to get out,' was the vibe I got from Grealish's interview this week, while he also spoke of the "massive reason" behind his City transfer with regards to his England prospects.

"I feel to be playing for England in the biggest of games I need to be playing at club level in the biggest of games, that'll be the Champions League, all these types of games," he said.

Now, again, those comments just don't stack up knowing that, this week, Kalvin Phillips was named England's player of the year for his standout Euro 2020 campaign with the Leeds United man now amongst the first names on Gareth Southgate's team sheet. It's the same with Everton and England No.1 Jordan Pickford and West Ham's Declan Rice who, this season, will taste Europa League football for the first time. All three started in Hungary last night and all three are top picks despite never playing Champions League football. Come off it, Jack.

Jealousy was a huge factor behind Grealish's move knowing he couldn't stand the likes of Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham and Mason Mount all drawing rave reviews for their star showings in Europe.

Grealish also referenced this in his ITV interview. "You see the likes of Phil last year playing in all these Champions League games in the quarters, semis and final and, you know, you could see that it did help his England career as well," he said.

Southgate hasn't helped in that regard, though, as he failed to pick Grealish time and time again despite the ex-Villa man outperforming Raheem Sterling, Foden, Mount and others on a weekly basis at 'little old Villa'. Grealish always made a difference whenever called upon with England while he became transfixed with getting his goal and assist numbers up, a motivation and obsession ingrained into him from Dean Smith's very first day as Villa boss in October 2018.

The Villa gaffer immediately knocked Grealish down a peg when he arrived. He pointed to his whiteboard at Bodymoor and told his star man, 'So you were going to sign for Spurs in the summer? For £25million?'

The boss then hit Grealish who, by the sounds of it, was gutted his Tottenham move didn't pan out, with the coldest of reality checks knowing he had no goals and just one assist from Villa's first 12 games in the Championship.

That moment of brilliant man-management sparked Grealish's career into life yet, as his ITV interview continued this week, it was all about The Grealish Show as he spoke of Pep Guardiola wanting the same in terms of numbers while speaking of his first goal in a City shirt.

Clarke was then in with another brilliant question asking Grealish if he's better after less than a month at the Etihad. "Yeah, 100 per cent," he said. "You just pick up stuff from certain players. Everyone's an international at a top, top country. It makes you up your standards."

Now that's not much of an endorsement for his former teammates at Villa, is it?

There was just zero affection for Villa, a club he banged on about loving, in Grealish's first England interview since leaving. It just stank of 'Villa aren't good enough for me, I'm better than that'.

I remember Smith's parting comments outlining how he told Grealish, 'Don't be a stranger now' but it's as if he is. The boyhood Villan has long gone. It's JG10 the brand, the PR machine.

Smith also said Grealish should be thankful to Villa, of no doubt he is, from his ex-teammates, coaches and right down to the canteen staff who cooked him beans on toast of a morning when he was a kid coming through.

The interview was a shocker. The body language, the quotes. It lacked class and class is something you'd always associate with Grealish.'

Those are the correct facts, ie some facts about other players, some details of his transfer, some stats about a Championship season, his age, and some quotes (though plenty of things that appear to be quotes are in fact not). The rest is gossip, conjecture, Preece's personal interpretation and a certain amount of pure fantasy.

Here are some phrases used in the article that you definitely don't get taught to use in journalism school:

  • 'as if' (used twice)
  • 'may as well have tweeted out' (ie, he didn't tweet this)
  • 'was the vibe I got from'
  • 'come off it'
  • 'by the sounds of it'
  • 'banged on about'
  • 'it just stank of'

It's just unprofessional, and the most embarrassing thing is that he's done it in the seemingly correct belief that loads of barking seals will be clapping along to it. Our fans can be pure cringe sometimes.

Mate I’ve known about him wanting out since the Spurs deal, I’ve said it many time on here and been given stick on here quite a few times but ultimately proved right in the end. Nevermind Preece’s language he’s on the money I’m telling you that. Jealousy is a factor, Jack’s head will be constantly filled with talk of being as big as Beckham etc Believe it or don’t, it’s  your call, from my point of view you can call him out on the style of the article fine but you’re wrong suggesting he’s made it up, he hasn’t and I have no love for the Mail. 

41 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Why don't you?

He's not at Villa now, so no worries about unsettling his season.

I’m on a warning for posting stuff on here that could be considered liable, it’s factual but proving it in a court is a different matter and the posts are gone now anyway. But it’s no secret Stella handle his PR as part of the deal, I’m sure a good dig online could tell you who does what. Like I said previously that video when he left was them.

38 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

Who's respect?  Probably my own.  Don't want to become what I've mocked.

Also, I'm not prepared to erase years of good times either.

I think we’ve got this kind of Grealish fog over the last few years, Mings is arguably more important as he stabilised that defence and got us promoted. Jack scored neither Playoff final goal, don’t get me wrong he helped us going forward but on his own he didn’t solve all our problems 

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Wainy316 Grand Master

Wainy316

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1 minute ago, Fairy In Boots said:

I think we’ve got this kind of Grealish fog over the last few years, Mings is arguably more important as he stabilised that defence and got us promoted. Jack scored neither Playoff final goal, don’t get me wrong he helped us going forward but on his own he didn’t solve all our problems 

We were absolutely turgid until he came back from injury and languishing at 13th in the table.  Other players played their role but Jack's return lifted the whole team as we went into that 10 game streak.

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