According to Sky Sports, Aston Villa have accepted a bid of around £100m From Manchester City for captain and star player Jack Grealish. The Villans attempted to keep their talisman by offering him a new contract. However, it is believed the club from the Midlands has now accepted the mammoth offer.

Matured in the last few seasons

Jack Grealish has always had a special talent, an ability that outshone most of his teammates at Villa. He produced flashes of his ability, but too often not on a consistent enough basis.

However, in the last few years, the attacking midfielder has started to mature. Maybe he has grown up off the pitch, leading to more influential performances for the Villans. He is the player that most of the Villa attacks go through and has the ability to change a game.

Unfortunately, at Villa, that ability would only get him so far, as he was highly unlikely to win silverware with the Midlands club. There is no longer much sentiment left in the game, even for a player who represents his boyhood club.

Move to City can help him improve

Some may say that he is not going to start every game at Manchester City, but to be fair very few players are immune to Pep Guardiola’s selection roulette. The move is a clarification that Jack Grealish is capable of featuring at the top level of the game.

He will get a fair amount of game time at City. Not even City spend a British club-record fee to have a player warming the bench. The 25-year-old will no doubt be just as influential on the pitch at City as he was at Villa. However, playing with better players, under a top-class head coach like Guardiola will improve him even further.

If Jack Grealish would have made this move five years ago, he would have been caught up in the hype and probably flopped like a wet jellyfish on a mattress. The current version of Grealish though will relish the challenge of playing for such a high-profile club.

Not the end of the world for Villa

Aston Villa will have been prepared for this move, as Grealish has been linked with a big-money move on numerous occasions in the past. It is a big blow to lose their talisman and captain, but £100m is a lot of money to add to a transfer kitty.

The Villans have already produced a canny signing in the shape of Argentinian star Emiliano Buendia from Norwich. They have also been linked with a move for Bayer Leverkusen winger Leon Bailey, while also seeing a £25m bid for Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse turned down too.

If Villa can bring in two or three quality players with the money, then Grealish’s exit may not prove to be the devastating blow it looks like at first glance.  It is not ideal to lose such a quality player, but that’s football. However, they could finish the transfer window with a better all-around team. Who knows the move may well turn out for all the main protagonists, even Villa.

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Will Jack Grealish’s move to Manchester City take him to the next level?