According to a recent report from The Daily Mirror, Aston Villa are seeking to tie Jack Grealish down to a new and improved contract. The 22-year-old played a key part in helping the Midlands giants finish fourth in the Championship last season but ultimately wasn’t able to inspire them to play-off success, although his efforts stimulated intense interest from Premier League outfit Tottenham during the summer window.

Yet the £4.5 million-rated sensation (as per Transfermarkt) remained at Villa Park beyond the English deadline, and with Steve Bruce’s men seeking to improve Grealish’s current deal at the club, these fresh reports suggest that Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs certainly missed a trick failing to get a deal done over the summer.

The Breakdown

Ultimately, while a return of three goals and six assists last season is hardly ground-breaking, the 22-year-old showed a level of maturity that hasn’t been seen too regularly in his young career to date, thus becoming a hugely influential player for Bruce over the course of the campaign.

In fact, the Englishman was arguably their most impressive performer in the 1-0 play-off final defeat to Fulham back in May to underline just how far he came last term, to the point that Tottenham were reportedly keen on giving him another shot in the Premier League.

Yet dithering from chairman Daniel Levy, who was seemingly hoping for Villa’s financial plight to worsen before launching a cut-price deal, saw the North Londoners miss out on the attacker’s signature, thus leaving them with no new additions during the summer transfer window.

And with a new deal reportedly set to be offered by Villa to keep Grealish at the club, a club he has been at since the age of six, it will almost certainly be even more difficult for Spurs to get their man in future windows, as a new deal would give the new Villa owners even greater power in negotiations.

And while some Tottenham fans may feel that Grealish’s arrival wouldn’t have improved Spurs’ squad, one mustn’t forget the job Pochettino has done in nurturing and thus developing young English talent during his time at the North London outfit - very few would have predicted Dele Alli’s meteoric rise since moving from MK Dons.

Ultimately, there is no doubting that Grealish has the talent and indeed the potential to become a top-quality attacker in the years to come, and he could have done that at Tottenham under the guidance of Pochettino, who has improved countless players during his stints at both Spurs and indeed Southampton.

Now though, with the Villans set to offer him a new deal, it looks as though it will become even tougher for the North Londoners to get their man in the coming transfer windows, thus meaning that they have certainly missed a trick failing to take advantage of Villa’s early-summer plight by luring Grealish to their club.

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