Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow has confirmed Jack Grealish’s move to Manchester City in a broadcast to the club’s supporters explaining how it materialised.
There has been a noticeable silence from all parties concerned over the past week, with Grealish seen training with the rest of the Villa squad at a training camp in London earlier in the week.
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With the Villa faithful waiting for developments on his future, it was finally confirmed on Thursday night that he would be leaving to join City, and Purslow was on hand to deliver a message to the supporters to detail how and why the transfer eventually came to fruition.
As seen in the video below, the Villa CEO explained that Grealish asked for a release clause to be included in the contract that he signed last year which tied him to the club until 2025, with a figure of £100m being agreed between the two parties.
Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow updated supporters this evening on the circumstances surrounding the departure of Jack Grealish.
Here is his broadcast on VillaTV. pic.twitter.com/7wqh5Vs64R
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 5, 2021
Villa believed that the fee was a fair reflection of his value and one that would put any interested clubs off, until City opted to make a bid of £100m last week.
Grealish, 25, essentially came to the decision that he wanted Champions League football now and couldn’t turn down the opportunity to join the reigning Premier League champions, and so the club have gone early to recruit and sign multiple players to fill that void with Emiliano Buendia, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings arriving this summer.
Ultimately, there is relief that the saga has now come to an end and Villa can move on with preparations for the new season which begins on August 14 away at Watford.
The majority of the fanbase will likely wish Grealish well at his new club, but the focus is now on us as we concentrate on moving forward without him as it remains to be seen whether or not our business this summer is done or if there are still additional signings to be made in the coming weeks.