According to a recent report from The Daily Mirror, Aston Villa will open talks with Jack Grealish over a new deal next month. The 22-year-old has been at the Midlands giants since the age of six and has since worked his way up through the ranks at Villa Park to the first team, for whom he has turned out on 115 occasions, with Notts County the only other team the young attacker has played for during his career.

Yet Premier League outfit Tottenham were reportedly keen on the Englishman over the summer but were ultimately unable to get a deal done, and were the Villans to secure an agreement with Grealish over his long-term future, it would be a huge statement of intent from the promotion-seeking club.

The Breakdown

Ultimately, it looked for all the world that the Villans would lose one of their most prized assets in Grealish during the summer given the financial woes crippling the club, with Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs heavily linked with a move for the 22-year-old.

Yet new investment midway through the summer lessened the need for Villa to sell the former England Under-21 international, and the English deadline passed with Grealish remaining on the books at Villa Park, likely to the delight of Villans supporters.

And were they to now tie him down to a new and improved contract, and thus strengthen their hand even more were Spurs to come in for him again in the coming transfer windows, it would represent a huge statement of intent given just how good he was for them last season.

The attacker finished the campaign with three goals and six assists for Bruce’s side to help them reach the Championship play-off final, and while they are hardly ground-breaking figures, it was the growing level of maturity and influence he had in that Villa side which saw him produce arguably his best season in many a year for the Midlands outfit.

And with five goals and five assists the campaign before for the Villans, it’s clear that Grealish is slowly but surely becoming an integral part of the Villa attacking unit, at the same time underlining his ability to produce the goods in the fiercely competitive Championship - clearly, he’s a huge asset to Bruce’s side.

And by tying him down to a new deal, not only are Villa strengthening their own hand were Spurs, and any other side for that matter, to come in for him in January, but they are also making their intentions clear to the rest of the division that they are not in the business of selling their best players - Grealish undoubtedly falls into that bracket.

Thus, were the Villans to secure an agreement with the 22-year-old over his future, it would send out quite the message to the rest of the Championship that Aston Villa are serious about sustaining a promotion push this time round.

Villa fans… what do you think? Let us know!