The RJW63 Official Jack Grealish Appreciation Thread

[Xela]

2 minutes ago, Genie said:

I don’t think we hear the half of what goes on behind the scenes.

A few years ago Villa made several bids to get Marc Albrighton back to the club over more than 1 transfer window but there was absolutely nothing in the media about it.

 

Did we? Never knew about that

 

[Genie]

2 minutes ago, Xela said:

Did we? Never knew about that

 

We did, and he gave it a lot of thought… then signed a new deal with Leicester.

The only other bit of ITK I ever got was about Shay Given. I was on a training course with some bloke I’d never met before but he said he knew Shay. He told me it was a done deal that he’d be signing for Villa. Medical and terms all done, but there was nothing at all in the media for a couple of weeks until it was announced by the club.

Goes to show that most enquiries and bids never make it public. 

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Genie

[Keyblade]

11 minutes ago, Genie said:

I don’t think we hear the half of what goes on behind the scenes.

A few years ago Villa made several bids to get Marc Albrighton back to the club over more than 1 transfer window but there was absolutely nothing in the media about it.

After Villa accepted the £100m (had to of course) they also said they had rejected numerous other lower bids for him, again nothing in the media about these apart from what Villa shared.

You don’t know who has bid for him or who he has rejected. 

The City offer was ridiculous, £370k a week, nearly £20m a year. It’s insane on a financial level max incredible on a football level. I don’t expect he thought last year when he signed a new deal this was round the corner.

 

Well he certainly made provisions for it. And according to @Fairy In Boots (who I and a lot of others gave a lot of stick to for this) was in contact with City as early as December of last year, which I guess is about as reliable as your ITK about Albrighton (which I'm not doubting btw). Sounds like he was as desperate for a move as someone under a fresh new 5 year contract could possibly be.

Quote

I get grief on here, but what I know is as follows.  Before x-mas Jack, his dad, his agent & David Manasseh (Stella )  met Txiki &  Pep in London and talked about a deal, £300k p/w and Jack has a £100m buy out clause (we would value more but that's the clause, new contract doesn't have one) Villa only play left is to offer a contract but Villa don't know about how much city have offered so we will offer around 200k (he's on £150k p/w atm) our hands are tied on this they really are. It won't be on Villa if he does leave this is Camp Grealish and Stella.

 

[Genie]

1 minute ago, Keyblade said:

Well he certainly made provisions for it. And according to @Fairy In Boots (who I and a lot of others gave a lot of stick to for this) was in contact with City as early as December of last year, which I guess is about as reliable as your ITK about Albrighton (which I'm not doubting btw). Sounds like he was as desperate for a move as someone under a fresh new 5 year contract could possibly be.

 

That’s kinda what I’d expect. They’ve triggered the clause and Villa have had to allow City to speak to Jack.

City are offering a £7.5m pay rise and CL football. If it was December then Jack potentially told them to go away and come back at the end of the season? 
He hasn’t exactly snapped their hands off of the move happened 7/8 months later.

[Keyblade]

1 minute ago, Genie said:

That’s kinda what I’d expect. They’ve triggered the clause and Villa have had to allow City to speak to Jack.

City are offering a £7.5m pay rise and CL football. If it was December then Jack potentially told them to go away and come back at the end of the season? 
He hasn’t exactly snapped their hands off of the move happened 7/8 months later.

Don't think City could have bought him even if they wanted to in January, having already spent about 200m in the summer. 

Also from the sound of it, and correct me if I'm wrong @Fairy In Boots, but that meeting seemed to be without the club's blessings and off the record.

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

I don't think it's literally the "my club" line, although that what he said in that infamous tweet and is easy to refer to. I think it's the whole spiel of signing on because he was really convinced by our owners' plans etc. It was obviously all BS. He wanted out ASAP. That hurts fans.

I get we all want to be logical about it, but let's be real, what about football is logical? It's all tribal, emotional BS, but it's our tribal emotional BS.

Why was it BS? He can still believe in the owners' plans and take a far far better offer. I said it before but even if the owners' plans go well, you'd be looking at 10 years until we could offer what Man City offer. And Let's be honest the chances of us achieving that are extremely slim

[PaulC]

4 hours ago, Robbie09 said:

I beg to differ, he is a useless prick, a lucky one as well. Any half decent manager with the players available would have won the Euros.

I think its disingenuous to call him a useless prick when other managers have had top players but done less. In any case its a very young squad and theres  more to come. 

[Keyblade]

6 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Why was it BS? He can still believe in the owners' plans and take a far far better offer. I said it before but even if the owners' plans go well, you'd be looking at 10 years until we could offer what Man City offer. And Let's be honest the chances of us achieving that are extremely slim

I guess he can technically "believe in it", as a Villa fan even, but citing it as the main reason he signed on for another 5 years is misleading because as you say he knows he'd likely not get to experience it for a while yet, if ever. It's just shit PR.

[ciggiesnbeer]

I think am over it. Grealish did a huge amount of good for this club not least in the overpayment we received for him leaving. He is our Gareth Bale. I wish Man City failure and misery but I can never boo Jack Grealish, I cant cheer him either mind.

[avfc1982am]

2 hours ago, Genie said:

If he wanted out surely he wouldn’t have signed a new deal to stay at Villa?

He’d have asked for a transfer, or ran his contract down.

He can absolutely love everything about Aston Villa, and want to play in the Champions league and earn a shit load of money at the same time.

He’s turned down multiple opportunities to leave the club already. Realistically if he stays it’s going to be middle third of the PL each year.

He leaves his boyhood club and realises his ambitions as a footballer by becoming a champion and establishing himself in the England side. 

He was never going go stay forever. 

He hadn't turned down anybody. The owners pulled the plug on the Spurs deal and no deal was forth coming last summer. He was also sitting on 3 years of a contract with no release clause. Therefore it was always in his interest to sign a new deal with a clause inserted. Our mistake was believing he signed the deal to see out the project.

Let's not make out he stayed out the goodness of his heart ffs. He'd have been gone in a flash had we let Spurs take him initially. 

[Mantis]

1 hour ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

I think am over it. Grealish did a huge amount of good for this club not least in the overpayment we received for him leaving. He is our Gareth Bale. I wish Man City failure and misery but I can never boo Jack Grealish, I cant cheer him either mind.

Overpayment? If there was no release clause would we have let him go for £100m?

[Xela]

33 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

He hadn't turned down anybody. The owners pulled the plug on the Spurs deal and no deal was forth coming last summer. He was also sitting on 3 years of a contract with no release clause. Therefore it was always in his interest to sign a new deal with a clause inserted. Our mistake was believing he signed the deal to see out the project.

Let's not make out he stayed out the goodness of his heart ffs. He'd have been gone in a flash had we let Spurs take him initially. 

Wasn't the time of his proposed Spurs move when we were in the shit financially? He stayed when new owners came in and secured the future of the club?

He signed a new contract because it was more money. Who wouldn't sign it? Also the release fee was at a level that no-one expected to be hit. Even Purslow said that. Its testament to how great he played last year that it was activated. 

I was gutted when he left. Genuinely upset me. Not since Platt left have I ever been that disappointed in a player and I was only 12 then! However, i'm over it now. We had become Jack Grealish FC, which was unfair on the other players. I think we'll be better off in time. 

[ciggiesnbeer]

29 minutes ago, Mantis said:

Overpayment? If there was no release clause would we have let him go for £100m?

Jack Grealish is not a 100M player imho. Man City overpaid. That release clause was silly money. As Purslow even said he didnt think anyone would actually pay it, (particularly given Grealish's injury record) I would have preferred he stayed of course but we got more money than he is worth so I am chill with it.

Edited September 1, 2021 by ciggiesnbeer

[Zatman]

4 hours ago, Genie said:

Southgate himself was saying he was picking players who had at experience at CL level (I know it contradicts some of his other selections but it’s what he was saying about the forwards).

Then he picked Phillips and Rice over Bellingham  

At end of the day Southgate is a shit Tim Sherwood who contradicts himself

Edited September 1, 2021 by Zatman

[avfc1982am]

7 minutes ago, Xela said:

Wasn't the time of his proposed Spurs move when we were in the shit financially? He stayed when new owners came in and secured the future of the club?

He signed a new contract because it was more money. Who wouldn't sign it? Also the release fee was at a level that no-one expected to be hit. Even Purslow said that. Its testament to how great he played last year that it was activated. 

I was gutted when he left. Genuinely upset me. Not since Platt left have I ever been that disappointed in a player and I was only 12 then! However, i'm over it now. We had become Jack Grealish FC, which was unfair on the other players. I think we'll be better off in time. 

It was indeed. My response though was to a comment that suggested he'd stayed when he had multiple opportunities to leave. The facts are he hadn't. The owners wouldn't let him and then the only other opportunity was when Shitty broke the bank. 

Personally I couldn't give a shit anymore what happens to the kid. I've moved on. But let's not push the narrative that he stayed at Villa out the goodness of his heart and love for the club. He would've gone many moons ago had the chance arisen. 

[dappadan]

Seems to me him and his agent/hangers on knew exactly what they were doing when getting a release clause inserted and exactly who they were going to notify about it.

He even helped himself to a little bit more money in wages out of his beloved club while he was at it and then sat out injured.

Not much happens in football by chance thats for sure.

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by dappadan

[JPJCB]

1 hour ago, avfc1982am said:

He hadn't turned down anybody. The owners pulled the plug on the Spurs deal and no deal was forth coming last summer. He was also sitting on 3 years of a contract with no release clause. Therefore it was always in his interest to sign a new deal with a clause inserted. Our mistake was believing he signed the deal to see out the project.

Let's not make out he stayed out the goodness of his heart ffs. He'd have been gone in a flash had we let Spurs take him initially. 

Completely agree with this.

I think these new contracts with hidden release clause situations stink to be honest. Allows the player to claim they’re loyal while actually knowing they’re more likely to leave and takes power away from the selling club by reducing their flexibility with the price.

there’s a rumour JWP has done the same with his new contract (might be just cause he’s with the same agency). If so, the exact same dynamic is playing out there: JWP pretends that signing a contract shows his loyalty when he’ll be gone next summer, Southampton pretend they’ve “locked down” their star man while knowing they have less flexibility in future. All smoke and mirrors

[Dave-R]

3 hours ago, Genie said:

If he wanted out surely he wouldn’t have signed a new deal to stay at Villa?

He’d have asked for a transfer, or ran his contract down.

He can absolutely love everything about Aston Villa, and want to play in the Champions league and earn a shit load of money at the same time.

He’s turned down multiple opportunities to leave the club already. Realistically if he stays it’s going to be middle third of the PL each year.

He leaves his boyhood club and realises his ambitions as a footballer by becoming a champion and establishing himself in the England side. 

He was never going go stay forever. 

He's still a god damn sell out and traitor that will never be forgiven for what he's said to Villa fans. He has said some incredible BullCrap and just up, left and turned his back on all that supported him.

 

 

[Keyblade]

26 minutes ago, JPJCB said:

Completely agree with this.

I think these new contracts with hidden release clause situations stink to be honest. Allows the player to claim they’re loyal while actually knowing they’re more likely to leave and takes power away from the selling club by reducing their flexibility with the price.

there’s a rumour JWP has done the same with his new contract (might be just cause he’s with the same agency). If so, the exact same dynamic is playing out there: JWP pretends that signing a contract shows his loyalty when he’ll be gone next summer, Southampton pretend they’ve “locked down” their star man while knowing they have less flexibility in future. All smoke and mirrors

It's kind of funny that Harry Kane who publicly said he wanted to leave, and even missed training will probably be better received by his fans when he eventually does leave. Because at the very least, he let it all on the table. Of course, it was all a cock up by him and his brother and had he been represented by Stellar he'd have likely had a release clause too  

[avfc1982am]

6 minutes ago, JPJCB said:

Completely agree with this.

I think these new contracts with hidden release clause situations stink to be honest. Allows the player to claim they’re loyal while actually knowing they’re more likely to leave and takes power away from the selling club by reducing their flexibility with the price.

there’s a rumour JWP has done the same with his new contract (might be just cause he’s with the same agency). If so, the exact same dynamic is playing out there: JWP pretends that signing a contract shows his loyalty when he’ll be gone next summer, Southampton pretend they’ve “locked down” their star man while knowing they have less flexibility in future. All smoke and mirrors

I agree. The problem was though we should've put in a ridiculous clause or said run your contract down over the next 3 years. In essence, played hardball. We'd still have made commercially and what, lose 30m a year on a player that cost nothing but have him for another 2 years, by which time we may have made the progress to get him to sign a contract and without a stupid release clause?! 

I think we acted gentlemanly though in this and believed when he signed the contract he was fully onboard for several more years, in truth he more than likely wasn't and yes, saw the new contract as a way to manipulate his future. Which tbh he has every right to. I just don't buy the love, loyal, he could've left before nonsense some want to trot out.