Man City Closing in on £100m Aston Villa Captain Grealish
Manchester City are closing in on the £100m signing of Aston Villa skipper Jack Grealish.
A deal could be concluded in time for the England midfielder to play in the Community Shield against Leicester City on Saturday.
The move for the 25-year-old would make it a British record.
The fee for him would surpass the £89m Manchester United paid to re-sign France midfielder Paul Pogba from Juventus in 2016.
Grealish is set to make the move after returning to pre-season training with Aston Villa following Euro 2020.
It seems as though the transfer has been conducted in a much smoother way than that of City’s other main target, Harry Kane, who is presently in a stand-offwith Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy over the striker’s claim a gentleman’s agreement exists for him to leave the club this summer.
Grealish signed a new five-year deal with Villa last September.
City made their move for him at the end of last week, following up a summer of conversations with Villa by lodging a bid.
Manager Pep Guardiola believes Grealish’s creativity can offer an extra attacking dimension to what is already one of the most potent attacking units in the English game.
City scored 83 goals in the Premier League last season, 10 more than the second-highest scorers Manchester United, but Guardiola evidently feels they are capable of more.
Grealish is a lifelong Villa fan and has been with the club for all his professional career, other than one brief spell on loan with Notts County as a teenager.
Villa announced the signing of winger Leon Bailey for £25mon Wednesday to add to the arrivals midfielder Emiliano Buendia from Norwich Cityand Ashley Young from Inter Milan.
If City do land Grealish for £100m it will make him the ninth most expensive player in history.
Only eight players have ever commanded a transfer fee of £100m or more.
Grealish and Man City attackers compared
Grealish
Sterling
Foden
Mahrez
Silva
De Bruyne
Games played
26
31
28
27
26
25
Goals
6
10
9
9
2
6
Assists
10
7
5
6
6
12
Chances created
81
39
36
44
27
80
Dribbles completed
65
66
38
45
41
48
Fouls won
110
41
34
30
18
3
Most Expensive British Transfers
*Grealish, £100m?
*Pogba, £89m
*Maguire, £78m
*Lukaku, £75m
*Van Dijk, £75m
World’s Top Five Transfer Fees
*Neymar(Barcelona – Paris St-Germain) £200m in 2017
*Kylian Mbappe(Monaco – Paris St-Germain) £166m in 2017
*Philippe Coutinho(Liverpool – Barcelona) £142m in 2018
*Ousmane Dembele(Dortmund – Barcelona) total fee of £135m in 2017
*Joao Felix(Benfica – Atletico Madrid) £113m in 2019
