Steve Bruce has told Sky Sports that Aston Villa have no choice but to sell Jack Grealish on top of a host of other key players.
Failure to gain promotion to the Premier League has resulted in John Terry, Robert Snodgrass, Sam Johnstone and Lewis Grabban all leaving for the club for good.
And now, to Villa supporters disappointment, Grealish is set to follow.
In addition to Grealish, another player set for the Villa Park exit door is striker Ross McCormack, who is valued at £4.5m by Transfermarkt.
The Birmingham Mail reports McCormack has been excluded from Aston Villa’s training camp in Portugal.
McCormack’s move from Fulham to the Villans has not worked out for anybody and after loan spells at both Nottingham Forest and Melbourne City, the Scotland international could now depart Villa Park permanently.
Given Aston Villa’s sticky financial situation, though, it may be worth keeping McCormack around and see if he could finally discover the goalscoring form he showed in previous Championship seasons.
It’s unlikely Villa will receive a good fee for McCormack anyway, although getting the 31-year-old off the club’s wage bill will be on owner Tony Xia’s mind.
Have a look at what Villa supporters have had to say on McCormack below…
Struggling to think of any clubs who've had as many out of favour players that aren't considered for selection, kept away from the squad, but can't be sold, as Villa in recent years. Here we are again, with McCormack the latest. Expensive, wasteful, terrible strategy. #avfc
— Kevin Hughes (@KevHughesie) July 10, 2018
Who the hell is going to take McCormack off our hands when he's on a reported 40k+ a week the answer is nobody so do we let him rot away at BMH or do we use him if kodjia, Adomah or even Hogan leave who else are we going to turn to surely we have to use him can't waste 40k+
— The Villa Villain (@UTV31) July 10, 2018
I accept FFP, villa gambled and we deserve all we get. What bothers me is that the owner is forced to balance the books by selling a home grown talent, while having to pay ridiculous wages for Richards & McCormack etc who have done nothing but sit on their contracts and laugh.
— Marcus Parry (@the_parrots) July 10, 2018
Bin him and whelan
— Jordan Jay 🇯🇲🇧🇧 (@JordanJay90) July 10, 2018
McCormack’s Villa career has been over since the moment we loaned him to another continent.
— Paul Theiss (@PaulTheiss) July 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/CianByNature/status/1016637934726995968
Trying to be realistic after what Bruce said but I’d imagine the figures will be around £25m for Jack, £8m for Chester, £10m for Kodjia.
Hopefully we can sell the likes of Hogan, Lansbury, Taylor, McCormack to raise some transfer funds. #avfc
— Rob Jones (@UpTheAstonVilla) July 10, 2018
