Former Liverpool managing director and current Aston Villa chief executive officer Christian Purslow has revealed Manchester City met a clause in Jack Grealish’s contract in order for him to become the most expensive British player ever. In light of the interest from the Premier League holders, Dean Smith’s side made three signings in the form of Emiliano Buendia, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings, with the latter potentially making Liverpool in the region of £6m due to a sell-on clause.
Christian Purslow said: “I wanted to speak directly to our supporters to confirm the transfer of our captain Jack Grealish to Manchester City and to explain the background to this move. 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 provision. 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 pounds, 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.”
