CAN THIS VILLAIN BE A HERO ON BIG STAGE?
Grealish has chance to make O’Neill think again
EVERYTHING changed for Jack Grealish the moment he signed with Stellar Group, a superpower in player representation which operates on a different level to the teenager’s father Kevin, who had been advising his son up until last year.
The men in control, co-owners Jonathan Barnett and David Manasseh, run one of the biggest football agencies in the world and this was the Aston Villa star’s introduction to the elite. Even with just a handful of first-team appearances under his belt, Stellar knew their latest capture was a talent worthy of the name which adorns their upscale London offices.
These are the men who have guided the career of Gareth Bale and were at the heart of his world record €100 million transfer to Real Madrid in 2013. Barnett was also the mastermind behind Ashley Cole’s controversial switch from Arsenal to Chelsea in 2006 – for which he was suspended by the English FA for 12 months and fined £100,000 after it was discovered he helped arrange a secret meeting between Cole and Stamford Bridge’s top brass.
‘I did what I had to do for my client,’ he later reasoned. And, no sooner had the teenager signed on the dotted line with Stellar then he was putting pen to paper in October on a new four-year contract at Villa Park worth an estimated £20,000 per week.
In the Grealish family home hangs a picture of the club’s victorious FA Cup team from 1905, a sign perhaps of how much the 19-year-old really is one of their own.
More remarkable though, is that a face looking out from the monochrome photograph of handlebar moustaches belongs to Grealish’s great-great grandfather – William Garraty. By amazing coincidence, 110 years before the latest prodigy walks out at Wembley today to face Liverpool, his ancestor was bringing that famous trophy to Villa.
Garraty, born in Aston in 1878, played once for England, before being part of the Villa team to beat Newcastle United 2-0 in front of 100,000 spectators at Crystal Palace.
More than a century on, Grealish stands two wins away from adding another silver-lined branch to the family tree. Born and raised in Solihull, Birmingham, he qualifies for Ireland through his father’s parents who were born in Kerry and Galway.
And last summer the teenager met with Martin O’Neill to discuss his international future. Having made a starring breakthrough into Noel King’s Ireland Under-21 team during their failed attempts at Euro qualification, the winger was on the radar of the senior manager.
ONLY 18 at the time, Grealish asked for space to be allowed weigh up his options. ‘I just think they want to take a little bit of time,’ O’Neill explained last August. They have been afforded plenty of it so far and when Grealish was named U-21 player of the year in Dublin last month he accepted the award on stage at RTÉ studios flanked by his parents, grandmother and girlfriend, where he gave the strongest indication yet that playing for Ireland was his preference.
‘I spoke to Noel at the start of the year and I said I was going to take a year out of international football this year and try and concentrate on my club football. I’ve had a good year at Villa and then hopefully next year I’ll be back playing again for Ireland,’ he said.
Music to Ireland fans’ ears, but don’t be fooled into thinking England only cottoned on to Grealish’s talent once he looked to be part of O’Neill’s plans. The FA have been tracking the player for some time and in the summer of 2013 invited father and son to a meeting where they laid out their grand plans.
The player was unmoved and doesn’t buy into the suggestions that representing England would have added to his value at Villa, or elsewhere. ‘I don’t agree with that,’ he insisted after an U-21 qualifier against Montenegro in March of last year. ‘Whatever is best for you is the way it should be.
At Villa, he now seems trusted to make an impact under Tim Sherwood, who has been in charge since the middle of February after replac- ing Paul Lambert with the club mired in a relegation battle. ‘Everyone in the squad has got an important part to play. It’s a fresh start for everyone,’ Sherwood said, as all new bosses do, when he took over.
Grealish’s ascent was not immediate and he suffered a set-back in the FA Cup quarter-final win over West Brom when he was sent off for two yellow cards, having only come on with 15 minutes to go.
But the player has persevered and impressed Sherwood. He started him in the club’s two most recent Premier League games – at home to fellow strugglers QPR and away to Spurs – and it was at White Hart Lane where he completed his first 90 minutes of action and left his boss impressed following the 1-0 victory.
‘He’s not fazed. It’s also about his ability and what he carries. He’s aware, he can open teams up, he can dribble past people, he’s got a massive future at this football club.
‘I need people who are going to fight for the cause. Not only has he got the hunger, he’s got the ability too. If I wasn’t sure about him, I wouldn’t be putting him in. I looked for a No.10. I looked at my options. He was my No.1. He has good awareness. He plays with wing mirrors.
‘He has intensity. He is a player for the future of this football club – but he’s a player for now as well.’
With a ringing endorsement like that, a starting place today would appear to be obvious. It will also be emotional. There is a chance that Grealish will look to the skies should Villa beat Liverpool. He lost baby brother Keelan to cot death 15 years ago this month and has been overcome when scoring previously. He also has two younger sisters, Keira and Hollie, who has cerebral palsy.
EMOTION is sure to consume him on arrival at Wembley, channelling that will be key to impressing O’Neill. Earlier this week, the Ireland boss was asked if we would attend the game to watch the 19-year-old in the flesh.‘It’s only boys that I know are going to be around in a couple of weeks’ time,’ O’Neill admitted, as he revealed Grealish will not be called up to the squad for the next Euro 2016 qualifier with Scotland in June, even if he declares for Ireland in the meantime.
‘It’s enormous pressure on someone to come in and I’m not so sure I’d be ready for that, ready to put that type of pressure on some young kid just because he made his mind up to play for us. The game’s too big
‘He’s a very fine player, it’d be great if he did (declare for Ireland), but I’m not going to change my mind on my stance, well stance is too strong a word, but to throw him into a game like that there [against Scotland] – that would be tough.’
Doing it on the big stage at Wembley might be Grealish’ best chance of making O’Neill think again.