Manchester City have confirmed the £100m transfer move for Aston Villa’s talisman Jack Grealish. Grealish has joined City on a six-year contract and will wear the number 10 shirt which was recently vacated by Sergio Aguero. On his first interview with City,
Jack Grealish said: “I am incredibly happy to have joined Manchester City. City are the best team in the country with a manager considered to be the best in the world – it’s a dream come true to be part of this club.”
Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow sent out a message to supporters explaining the background to Grealish’s move.
Christian Purslow said: “Last summer following interest from a number of clubs, we offered Jack a new contract to stay at the club which he accepted with one proviso. Jack wanted to be certain that if at any point a Champions League club came for him and Aston Villa was not in that competition, that we would not stand in his way. For that reason we agreed to incorporate in a so-called release clause into his contract – our board set this clause at a value of £100m, knowing that would be by some way a record price for a British footballer and also a record fee for any player bought by a Premier League club. Put another way, we set the value we hoped would not be made but which would reflect the truly unique value of Aston Villa. After a brilliant season for Jack, culminating in his performances of the Euros, a number of clubs expressed interest in signing him, initially at figures below the release clause – we simply refused to entertain those approaches. Finally, Manchester City notified us that they would be willing to pay the £100m pounds it would take to trigger this clause. After many hours of discussions involving Jack, his family and his agent, during which we made clear our strong desire for him to stay at Aston Villa, Jack finally decided he would like to go to City and instructed us to exercise his release clause as was his prerogative. It was a highly emotional moment when he finally told me his decision, leaving me in no doubt how hard it had been for him to decide to leave our club which he joined when he was six years old. Ultimately, he said it boiled down to wanting to play Champions League football now. Mostly importantly for our supporters tonight, I want you all to be reassured that the board, Dean Smith, Johan Lange and I obviously knew this day might come and we have planned accordingly.”
Purslow highlighted it was ‘never the club’s intention to replace Jack Grealish with one footballer,’ despite the board being aware that the day would, one day, come.
Christian Purslow added: “Our strategy was to analyse and break down Jack’s key attributes, his creativity, his assists, his goals and to find these qualities and others in three forward players.”
Villa have been active in the summer window, bringing in four signings: Emiliano Buendia from Norwich City, Ashley Young from Inter Milan and most recently confirming the move of Leon Bailey from Bayer Leverkusen and Danny Ings from Southampton. As reinforced by Purslow, the club was well aware that Grealish’s eventual departure would mean that the board would have to bring more than one player to replace the 25-year-old, with a team that would often play and rely on the midfielder.
Christian Purslow continued: “In signing Emiliano Buendia, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings, we believe we have achieved this key objective and in doing so, reduced an over dependency on one brilliant footballer.”
As the season nears to a start, Villa will now turn their focus the new 2021/22 Premier League campaign.
Purslow assured fans that everybody in the club is “looking forward to seeing our new team with enthusiasm, with excitement and with confidence”.
Christian Purslow concluded: “There is real depth and breadth to our squad with these new players and the returning Ashley Young joining last year’s outstanding signings, all of whom have settled brilliantly, as well as some more very high potential academy graduates who are now in and around the first-team squad, they truly are the future.”
He finally thanked the Villans for their ‘fantastic support’ with everybody at the club looking forward to the return of fans to Villa Park.
