LONDON STADIUM — Jack Grealish grew up about 10 miles from Villa Park. He was born even closer. At the age of six, he joined Aston Villa, the club he has supported for as long as he can remember. Now nearly two decades later, he may have kicked his last ball for the club. At least he kept them up.
Watford’s early blowout at Arsenal meant Villa knew they had their fate in their own hands, which proved to be enough, although the quiet post-match huddle followed by wild celebrations would suggest they did not know the situation until minutes after the final whistle.
Andriy Yarmolenko’s equaliser, deflected off Grealish who had given them the lead just a minute before, ensured a nervy finish, but it was always theirs to lose. When it comes to their captain, creator-in-chief, the man who scored the goals to get them back into the Premier League and keep them there, reality may take his future out of their control.
Wherever he ends up – Manchester United, Tottenham and even Borussia Dortmund have all been linked – he is unlikely to be the same sort of main man that he has been for the last four years at Villa.
He is their top-scorer (7), has the most assists (6) and produces more key passes than any other player in the side (2.7 per game). When John McGinn broke his ankle in December, he was left as Villa’s only creative outlet.
In this their final game of a campaign spent mostly in the relegation zone, Mbwana Samatta was the nominal leader of the line but failed to double his season total when he headed straight at the goalkeeper with a quarter of an hour gone.
In the knowledge that a draw might be good enough but a win almost certainly would be, Villa set out their stall early on, shaped to work hard with bodies behind the ball and Grealish loitering out wide on the left.
Instinctively, his fellow midfielders now turn first to him before looking for other options, and there is obvious frustration when he is not available or not found. Even Pepe Reina could be heard barking his name from goal kicks.
So prominent was Villa’s plan to utilise him constantly that Grealish spent much of the first half hoping that Ryan Fredericks might forget he was there.
Eventually he did. With 84 minutes gone, he scored the goal he so desperately wanted six minutes later, skinning the recovering Fredericks with neat feet and beating Fabianksi with power over placement.
His (current) manager will hope it is not his last contribution to the club, although tellingly he could not guarantee Grealish staying.
“I expect him to get drunk with me tonight, that’s the only answer I can give you,” Smith said afterwards, beer in hand.
“I will sit down with the sporting director, the CEO and the owners on Monday. Let’s enjoy this. It’s a great achievement from where we were.
“There was a massive turnaround of players, we had to, so any contracts up, so many things to do, brought players in.
“The players have grown through the season, as I thought they would, a lot of them look like Premier League players, we have to be smart with recruitment.”
If Grealish does end up as part of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s midfield along with Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba, he may find those sorts of pockets of space more often, with teams less likely to devote such tactical and physical attention to him.
How he responds to being the fourth or fifth option to pass to may be a different story.
However, if Villa are to stay up next year, and without Grealish that must be the limit of their expectations, they will need to replace him and then some. McGinn is the natural replacement but Villa should regard themselves fortunate to have survived the Premier League without a player scoring more than seven goals.
If Grealish does move on, it will be with a hefty pricetag, which must go straight back out on a striker. Otherwise, the last-day escape will have been nothing more than a stay of execution.
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