Grealish open to summer move to top club
Jack Grealish will consider a summer move to test himself at the next level, despite his loyalty to boyhood club Aston Villa.
The 24-year-old has admirers at Manchester City and Manchester United, and Villa are braced for approaches for the midfielder when the transfer window opens at the end of the season, regardless of whether he keeps them in the Premier League.
Grealish’s form has given Villa a chance of staying in the top flight following promotion from the Championship last season. He is a lifelong Villa fan and has been at the club since he was six. Those close to him still believe he would look at a move should one of the country’s top clubs come calling.
Tottenham Hotspur came close to landing him at the start of last season, but Villa rejected their £25million bid. He has not earned a call-up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad yet, but has made a compelling case. He switched from Republic of Ireland in 2015 after representing them up to under-21 level.
United, who are looking to bring through young home-grown talent instead of marquee signings, believe he could add quality to their midfield.
He is ahead of James Maddison in the midfielders they are looking at, with the Leicester player close to agreeing a new deal at the King Power Stadium.
Grealish is also a home-grown player which helps with the quota of Premier League clubs.
Pep Guardiola recently revealed his admiration for Grealish when his City team booked a place in the Carabao Cup final to face Villa.
“They have one of the best players in the league in Jack Grealish,” Guardiola said. “I’m a big fan of him.”
This season Grealish has scored nine goals in his 27 appearances.
Fred has claimed Manchester United are riddled with problems in a remarkably candid appraisal of the club’s woes.
The Brazil midfielder has accused Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s struggling side of lacking togetherness and creativity and claimed some players have “different objectives” to their team-mates.
United are eighth in the Premier League, six points adrift of the top four, and in danger of missing out on Champions League qualification for a second successive season. And Fred – who has shown signs in recent times of settling after a tough transition to English football – conceded they had a plethora of issues to address.
Speaking openly on a Brazilian YouTube channel, the United midfielder said: “We are lacking a lot right now. First of all, we need to figure out things on the pitch, we are lacking creativity, especially in midfield.
“We also need to improve as a group, our group lacks the sticking together mentality, we have lots of problems. There are a lot of discussions, every group has this sort of problem, but ours has this. Vanity is also an issue and we need to stop this and just run on the pitch. We need to stick a goal inside our minds, focus on it and go forward. We need to be on the same page and today some players have different objectives, there are players that just want to solve problems alone and this is wrong.”
Solskjaer was dealt another blow yesterday when it emerged that Odion Ighalo will play no part in the club’s winter training camp in Marbella amid fears that if he was to travel then he would not be allowed back into the country.
In a setback for Solskjaer and Ighalo’s hopes of hitting the ground running at Old Trafford, the Nigeria striker did not travel to Spain yesterday for the six-day camp.
United are worried that, should UK immigration opt to tighten border controls on travellers who have been in China within the past 14 days following the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus, Ighalo could be barred from reentering England if he was to leave the country. Ighalo, 30, only arrived in Manchester last Sunday following his deadline-day loan move from Chinese Super League club, Shanghai Shenhua.
United are not due to return from Marbella until late on Friday – which would still be less than a fortnight since Ighalo was last in China.
It means Ighalo will instead be forced to remain at the club’s Carrington training base to work on a personal training and fitness programme, denying Solskjaer valuable time to integrate his new signing into the squad. United are due to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Feb 17.