Put Jack Grealish up there alongside Ruben Loftus-Cheek for players that I have a real soft spot for.
Like Ruben, I just love watching Jack play football. He is majestic, magical, class, skillful, quality, and just glides along the pitch with ease, a lot like Ruben does.
My exclusive news from earlier in the week reporting that Chelsea have discussed Grealish internally as a potential option in the summer transfer market really blew up yesterday and had everyone talking.
I totally appreciate other views on this, but signing Grealish would be a no brainer for me, as long as the wages and fee also worked and were not too extortionate. Maybe they would be, and maybe that would rule it out before it even gathered pace. But if there’s a chance, an opportunity, and a realistic shot at getting Grealish for the right price and wages, then we quite simply HAVE to be ALL over it.
He’s got bags of experience, in the Premier League, Europe, and at international level. He has experience of being a club captain. And he has leadership qualities. All these things are what we need and are missing. We need to balance the squad with proven and quality experience, and Jack is your guy, or ONE of your guys.
I think it’s very lazy to say he would be another Raheem Sterling just because he’s a Manchester City player that it looks like Pep Guardiola would be prepared to sell. You know who else was a City player that Pep Guardiola was prepared to sell? Cole Palmer. But nobody wants to mention that comparison?
The fact is, Jack Grealish is a completely different player to Raheem Sterling. Jack is still involved in the England squad, Sterling hasn’t been for months now. Jack is a MUCH better player than Sterling and always has been in my opinion. He is a different type of player and has a lot more in his locker. He should be starting for England but Gareth Southgate exists.
He can dribble, take players on, has a great eye for many different range of passes, he can score a world class goal, and he is the kind of player who has that x-factor and can make something happen from nothing, like Palmer.
He could genuinely become Chelsea’s OTHER talisman. Give him the keys to Stamford Bridge, give him that freedom, back him, allow him to be an important player for Chelsea like he was at Aston Villa, and he will thrive once again just as he did there.
Honestly, he was one of the best in the world during that period. And he hasn’t lost that quality, he is just told to play in a certain way at City, and he also has competition from world class superstars. At Chelsea, who would be his serious competition? Exactly…. Give him a real role again where he can thrive, where he can feel important, and you’d see the above Jack again, I have ZERO doubts.
I had MANY doubts about signing Sterling, and I was vocal with that. I don’t have any about signing Jack.
And it’s not as if he’s even been bad at City at all, far from it…
Granted, he’s a bit of a jack the lad, but so was Diego Costa and many other top Chelsea players from the past. These personalities are often needed in a club for morale and balance. Paul Gascoigne is my favourite ever player, and we all know what he was like off the pitch, but he was still one of the best to ever do it and nobody would have turned down signing him at the time. Ironically, Grealish reminds me of Gazza in the way he plays and carries the ball. Both absolute ballers.
Look, I have no idea if we will even try and sign him, but he has been discussed. It may lead to nothing. He might be too expensive, his wages might be too much, and then so be it, that one will be over. But if there’s a chance and the figures are OK, then absolutely we MUST go for it.
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