MINI MESSI JACK THE GREAL DEAL

TONY BANKS

DEAN SMITH is not worried Jack Grealish is being dubbed a minimessi – because he can handle being compared to the world’s best.

Smith wants his Aston Villa ace (left) to keep showing just why some think there’s a touch of Messi about him.

Ahead of Villa’s trip to Brighton tonight, keeper Emi Martinez, who trains with Lionel Messi on international duty with

Argentina, said: “I think Jack is the most talented English player.

“Messi is the best ever but, in terms of training, when Jack is on the ball people don’t want to tackle him. He can do everything and Messi is the same. He treats people like cones and I see that with Jack.”

Villa boss Smith added: “He’s getting high praise but Jack handles it all very well. He gets stick from the boys for it but he handles all that as well. His biggest strength is his balance.

“England have an abundance to pick from so it’s going to be tough to get in that squad.

“All players have their minds set on the Euros now we’re into the second half of the season.

“The closer you get to it, the better the form you are going to need to be in to get a place so that’s the big incentive for every player.”

TON-UP Conor Coady says this season is enough to drive any player close to madness.

The Wolves skipper makes his 100th Premier

League appearance admitting their second game in four days against Southampton only underlines his point.

The Saints are on a run of five successive defeats in the league, including the 9-0 thrashing by Manchester United and a 3-2 defeat by nine-man Newcastle. Yet they came to Molineux on Thursday night and knocked Wolves out from the FA Cup with a 2-0 win. Coady (left) admits it’s hard to take in and says his side’s form this season backs up what everyone is thinking. Wolves are struggling to get any run going after two seventh-place finishes in their two seasons back in the big time.

But Saints turned around their own fortunes and Coady said: “We don’t really consider the form they have been in as I think every team has had good spells and bad.

“It’s such an unpredictable year and mad season.

“That’s why we don’t look too much at what’s happened in the past – just what is coming.”

ROY HODGSON is going through his toughest spell in 45 years of management - but says he’s still raring to go.

Hodgson, who took his first job in the hot-seat at Halmstad in Sweden in 1976, has managed 16 clubs and three national sides. But none has presented as many challenges as taking charge of Crystal Palace in the middle of the pandemic.

“This is the hardest time I’ve had as a coach – because of the virus,” said Hodgson (left).

“It’s not been more testing in terms of working with the players. But we have done it in the weirdest of circumstances – with no crowds, and jumping through hoops to get games on. It has been far and away the hardest I’ve experienced.

“Do I ever get the feeling I would rather be on a beach? I had that feeling back in 1976!

“I would defy any manager to say there has never been a day he hasn’t thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to go to the beach instead of going to the training ground?’ But of course I still enjoy it. My appetite is as great as ever.”