The Aston Villa fans in the Transfer Tavern are feeling rather downbeat due to their club’s dire financial crisis which will presumably force them to offload their most valuable asset this summer, namely Jack Grealish.
The reality is that Villa will need to balance the books this summer, and the only player they own of significant value is the 22-year-old playmaker. After returning from injury with a more commanding physical presence, Grealish came into his own last season and begun to blossom into the player which he was widely tipped to become when he broke through as a youngster.
But his time with the Villans is rapidly approaching a disappointing end, with Premier League clubs beginning to queue up to secure his services. According to Sky Sports, Tottenham Hotspur have opened the biding with a £15 million bid – a figure which is teetering somewhere between optimistic and insulting.
However, TEAMtalk believe that Chelsea are willing to offer Villa £30 million and agree to immediately loan him back to the club for the 2018/19 season, which represents a generous offer under the current circumstances. Despite this, Villa should instead propose a swap deal rather than asking for Grealish on a one year loan deal and demand Chelsea include Mason Mount in a part-exchange deal.
The 19-year-old attacking midfielder has recently returned from a productive loan spell at Vitesse Arnhem where he won the player of the season award at the end of a campaign in which he scored 13 goals and provided 10 assists in all-competitions. His record is a glowing indication of Mount’s potential to blossom into a fantastic Premier League footballer in the years to come, but his development would certainly benefit from a stint in the Championship to begin with.
Like Grealish, Mount is capable of playing across the attacking midfield three in either a central of wide position, so he would represent a straight swap for Villa’s highly sought-after academy product. Naturally, Villa would love to keep hold of Grealish this summer, but they will have to be pragmatic in order to balance the books and stay afloat financially, and asking for Mount along with a huge £30 million fee could be the perfect way to simultaneously ease their crisis and replace Grealish.
Aston Villa fans – thoughts? Let us know below!
