Father of £100m star explains why he blocked ‘cheap’ Tottenham transfer
The father of Manchester City star Jack Grealish admits he was not impressed by the way Tottenham Hotspur tried to lure the treble-winner to the Premier League back in 2018.
It’s fair to say Aston Villa were rewarded for their stubbornness.
Just three years after rejecting a £25 million bid from Tottenham Hotspur in August 2018, Jack Grealish would leave his beloved claret-and-blue-clad club for some £75 million more. Villa accepting a bid from Manchester City which, at the time, made the England international the Premier League’s most expensive-ever player.
And if you’re wondering why Daniel Levy is such an unpopular figure among sections of the Spurs support, well comments from Grealish’s father in discussion with VG should go a long way to providing an explanation.
Tottenham missed out on Man City’s Jack Grealish
“I said (to Tottenham); ‘put some real money on the table’,” Grealish Sr explains. “I didn’t want to see the club of our hearts robbed of money (so) I said; ‘no, Jack is not going’. Something was not right. They tried to get him cheap. For a pittance. Maybe I was naive, but I said; ‘we’re not going’.”
Had Levy been willing to dig a little deeper, Tottenham might have got their mitts on one of the most talented English footballers of his generation. A treble-winner with a Premier League and a Champions League winners’ medal adorning his personal collection of silverware.
Grealish’s remarkable trophy haul since moving to Manchester, meanwhile, ensures the 28-year-old’s father can sleep a little easier, in the knowledge that his aborted Tottenham switch did not, after all, prove to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity squandered.
A treble-winner at City
“I thought (when rejecting Spurs); ‘have I made a complete fool of myself? Have I messed it up?’. And will Jack ever get the chance to play against such great players?’”
Now a regular in a Man City side competing for the biggest prizes against the biggest opposition, there can be no doubt in the Grealish household that his potential has most definitely not gone unfulfilled.
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