It’s just a quick one, mainly to test that our Twitter notifications are working ok now, but this story really caught my eye.
According to the Daily Star, contract talks with Jack Grealish, whose contract runs out next Summer, are close to stalling.
The reason apparently (and yes, I know it’s the Star) is because we’re only offering him £5000 a week.
The story goes on to say that Chelsea have made enquiries about the kid previously and they’re still very interested in him.
It’s also no great surprise that they’ll offer him more money too.
Now, I know the arguments that will probably be coming; he’s only a kid, he hasn’t done anything yet, we can’t be held to ransom etc, but surely if we want to look to keep our brightest up and coming kids, we need to pay them competitive money?
You can bet that any of the top five or six clubs would easily double and probably even quadruple that £5k a week for such a strong prospect and while of course they’re in a better position to be able to do it, we simply must come up with something that’s at least in the ballpark.
I don’t care how we go about it; a highly incentivised contract based on performance would be my way of thinking.
If we lose this kid, after what I’ve seen of him, I’ll be well miffed.
On a different note, I’d like to say congratulations to Fabian Delph for his first full England game.
I didn’t see it, but from what I gather, while he wasn’t brilliant, he seems to have been one of the better rated players on the night and didn’t let himself down.
Ah good, the Twitter link is working again 🙂
I would offer him 5k a week, increasing by 5k each season based on games played over a four year contract. Plus appearance bonus, goal bonus plus assist bonus. In the meantime if he makes a Raheem sterling type impact villa should be prepared to give him more
I don’t want another overpaid youngster such as Weimann who appears to have dipped since a big contract was signed.
Grealish looks a fantastic prospect. He is one of the rare players who can truly tease a defender in like a muppet then nick it away. I hope he keeps improving, it is fantastic to have villa graduates making a stir.
Well done delph too on his positive and energetic England performance too. He knocked spots off wilshere.
Oops, sorry it took a while for me to approve your comment stubbly.
Welcome mate.
Your points are good, except for offering the original 5k, imo.
I don’t see his agent going for that, when he can take lots more straight away.
We have to up the offer.
I should imagine that we will tie him up on a three year or so incentivised contract. He knows he’s best off at Villa with a faithful crowd willing him to do well rather than going on loan from Chelsea and having the Chavskis moaning about an unknown IF he made a debut for them.
Can’t believe all we hear in the press, and let’s be honest, nobody was overly fussed that Albrighton went to Wigan on loan, but were incredulous with Villa that he was allowed to go Leicester on £30k per week or whatever.
I think he’s come on for the last twenty minutes or so a couple of times for them. He wouldn’t be on our bench at the moment.
We’ll keep Grealish for now, but if he goes on to be as good as he looks like he may, we’re bound to lose him for multi-millions, just like we raid other clubs lower down the food chain too.
Oh, and other than his early yellow card, (quelle surprise), Delph played very well and looked at ease.
Don’t know if that reflects England’s quality, or that he has become a fairly accomplished player.
Delp gave a fair assessment of his worth lastnight, the likes of Roony, Wiltshere did not, Rooneys gone in the football world he’s only on because of sponsors, Wiltshere is to slow and not even be considered for England midfield, as for others played out of position and got lost in the game, England was lucky lastnight could have gone Switzerland’s way, win the group be that’s it.
But that’s it.
If Grealish knows whats good for him, he will stay well away from Chelsea. He would be loaned out to bottom of the barrell clubs every year and not ever make their bench. Chelsea have the worlds elite right through the squad and although still young, will not ever become that good.
Delph was very good and the stats don’t lie, bar the first 10 mins when he seemed a tad excited.
Most of the side were decent and was good to finally have a side all playing in their natural positions, except Wilshere, who will never be a deep lying CM’er, and it showed.
The swiss had their couple chances, as u’d expect from a decent international side but to say we were lucky is not only wrong, but complete bollox.
Ha, don’t sit on the fence Helenius 🙂
As for Grealish, we do have a couple of things in our favour.
First is he’s a Villa fan, second he’s happy, third, as has been said he’ll start for us.
But we know what it’s all about and that’s his bloody agent, who won’t give a toss, but just wants the biggest cut he can get, because he doesn’t have the time on his side that the actual player does.
its scary how our players contracts are being allowed to run down . got a bad felling delph will get his head turned now he has played for England and will get tapped up while on England duty as for grealish money talks . If we have offered 5k and chelski or some one else offers 25k-30k then goodbye jack. as badger123 said it all depends what sort of agents these players have.
If he wants to join Chelsea and rot in the reserves, more fool him. Or he could stay at Villa and become a legend.
If we lose him to Chelski following Crowley down to the smoke it appears every diamond we uneart are gone before they kick a ball in anger begging the question just what is the point of our academy?
I think it looks like a lazy press story…. Ooh one of the lads from the Villa played well for England, how dare they try and upset the party…. Lets try and destabilise one of their youngsters…… absolute disgrace !
I hope there’s no truth in this but the club are pretty lax to allow this situation to develop so often. Grealish is a talent but here we are talking about £5K a week being inadequate. He is 19 years old being offered £260K per year! He would be crazy to move to Chelsea at this stage. I hope he and his agent are just looking to get a better deal out of Villa. He will move on to bigger and better things in a few years time.
It’s no wonder so many of these talented kids go off the rails though. All that cash at such a young age and too much time on their hands.
Both Grealish and Delph have stated they want to stay, neither has said any different. I believe if they wanted to go they wouldn’t of said they want to stay. For me Delph owes the club, the manager and the fans big time for the way we’ve all stuck by him since he arrived 4 years ago. As for Grealish, I also believe he will sign a new contract. He’s a Villa lad and been at the club since he was almost still in nappies!! I don’t think we have anything to worry about regarding losing those 2.
I don’t know if he (delph)owes the fans much maybe the club. I remember writing him off as just not gojng to make it at one point and that was one of the more polite assessments. There were calls for him to never wear a villa shirt again round that time. I beleive it was when mcleish was here
But the club did sick by him and its paying off now
The mail have said that we’ve offered Grealish a four year deal. Let’s hope it’s enough to keep him.