Jack Grealish’s agent, Jonathan Barnett, has commented on the Aston Villa captain’s future amid never-ending speculation linking him with an exit.
The 25-year-old was enjoying a stellar campaign this year having scored seven goals and provided 12 assists in just 23 appearances, while he also made his breakthrough for England.
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However, a shin injury has forced him to miss the last 11 games of the campaign, and so his focus for now will be on fully recovering, featuring for Villa before the season ends and playing for England at the European Championship this summer.
Dating back to when Villa were still in the Championship, there has always been speculation surrounding Grealish’s future at Villa Park, and Barnett spoke to Sky Sports about his client on Thursday evening.
“He loves Villa, but I think we just have to wait to see how things pan out,” he said, as reported by Sky Sports. “At the moment he is a Villa player and he has had no thoughts about anything else.
“We have to do what is best for Jack and for everybody else.
“I think he is a very special player. I think he maybe should have been playing for England a little earlier.
“It is unfortunate that he has got this injury at the moment but that will be fine. He has got a great mentality. On the field, he knows exactly what he wants to do, how to do it.
“I think he could be a big star in the summer. Only hope that he is given a chance and that will be great.”
Time will tell if Grealish is fully fit and features heavily this summer, but from a Villa perspective, it’s hoped that he can return to play a key role in some of our remaining Premier League games as we still arguably have faint hope of a late push for Europe.
Beyond that, the ideal scenario would of course be that our captain stays with us for many years to come, spearheads our continued progression and achieves both personal and club-related ambitions to ensure he doesn’t need to look elsewhere.
Barnett has stated some important factors in terms of Grealish’s love for Villa and that he’s not thinking about anything else, but as all agents seem to do, he’s subtly left the door open to a possible exit still. Villa will have absolutely no desire to lose Grealish this summer or in fact at any time beyond that, and so time will tell how the situation develops.
