Manchester United have reportedly been told they will have to shell out a whopping £80 million to land Aston Villa playmaker Jack Grealish.
According to Daily Mail, Aston Villa have made their demands pretty clear as far as negotiating Jack Grealish’s sale is concerned. The relegation threatened Premier League side will not sell Grealish, who is high on Manchester United’s summer priority list, for under £80 million.
The report states that Villa have no intentions of lowering their valuation even if they end up being relegated from the Premier League. This part does sound extremely weird considering the fact that their current captain and Manchester United target is unlikely to take too kindly to the prospect of Villa denying him a return to the top flight and in turn, relegating him to Championship football as an extreme thought.
Jack Grealish is a playmaker that has gained admirers after his exploits for Aston Villa in an otherwise disappointing 2019-20 season for the club. The 24-year-old footballer has scored 9 times and set his teammates up another 8 times in a total of 32 appearances distributed between the Premier League and the Carabao Cup.
Manchester United are long-term admirers of Grealish and the interest in the 24-year-old has only increased after being priced out of a potential move for Leicester superstar James Maddison over the recent transfer windows. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is building a strong youthful squad laden with leaders and Grealish outshines Maddison in that aspect, having led Aston Villa for a while now.
Bruno Fernandes arrived in January and reinvigorated the squad with his playmaking and goalscoring abilities as a number 10. But, there is talk of Grealish being brought in not as competition for Bruno but to either fill the right wing; a position Grealish has played in while also being able to be an option for the number 10 role in case the Portuguese international is unavailable or played deep in midfield by Solskjaer.
The problem though, lies in the fact that Grealish hasn’t played a single Premier League game on the right, with Dean Smith preferring to field him on the left. The left side at Manchester United has been championed by Marcus Rashford and there is little wiggle room as far as choosing a starter for the left wing is concerned.
Paying £80 million for a player who will either have to adapt a lot position wise in terms of recent historical statistics or will have to be accommodated properly, which will also be counter-productive for Manchester United, might be an absurdity. One should also take into account the rumours linking the club to Donny van de Beek, whose arrival could solve the midfield issues while allowing Bruno to operate mainly as a number 10.
Another alternative could be to combine a move for van de Beek with a pursuit of a cheap or bargain arrival for the right wing, which could be satiated by Manchester United’s pursuit of Willian.
If Villa don’t budge from their asking price, it might be better to call of the pursuit instead of giving in for a player who might not even be able to adjust well into the setup created by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United.
