According to reports in the Daily Mail, Everton are one of the Premier League clubs considering making a summer move for Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish, who is valued at £40m by the Championship outfit according to Sky Sports.
The Daily Mail says that Villa need to sell players this summer in order to stay in line with FFP regulations having been beaten by Fulham in the play-off final at Wembley last weekend, and the 22-year-old is one of their most valuable assets.
The report says that the Toffees, along with Leicester City and West Ham United, are all keen on the England U21 international, who scored three goals and provided a further five assists in 27 league games to help Villa secure a top-six finish.
The arrival of Grealish, who usually played in the centre and provided runs from deep but can also play wide on the left, at Goodison Park would certainly have plenty of consequences in terms of new manager Marco Silva, the formation, their current players and the fans, who don’t believe the club need to sign a Euro 2016 winner this summer.
Here are three things that will definitely happen if Everton seal the huge £40m deal…
The new Toffees boss proved with the likes of Richarlison, Nathaniel Chalobah and Will Hughes during his time with Watford that he can get the best out of young and promising individuals, and there is no reason why the same won’t happen in Grealish arrives at Goodison Park.
The 22-year-old has a similar playing style to Hughes as he is cultured on the ball and capable of making those strong forward runs from a deep-lying position in the middle of the park, and Silva will know exactly how to make sure he thrives for the Merseyside outfit.
While Everton will hope to get Grealish for less than £40m if they do push ahead with a move to sign him, it seems certain that he will be in starting XI at the beginning of next season if he does arrive on Merseyside in a big-money deal.
The England U21 international would obviously need to prove himself in pre-season and would have plenty of competition from the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Tom Davies and Yannick Bolasie, but the fact that he can play in a range of different positions should ensure he is named on the team-sheet when the new campaign gets underway on the weekend of August 9-12.
The 2017 summer signing from Ajax may well have been hoping for a second chance to impress under Silva next season following a disastrous debut campaign at Goodison Park where he found himself largely excluded from proceedings by Ronald Koeman, David Unsworth and Sam Allardyce.
However, the arrival of Grealish, who primarily plays in a similar position to the Dutchman, would surely seal his fate once and for all, and bring an end to what has been a nightmare spell on Merseyside for the 25-year-old who arrived with such promise and potential.
Do you agree, Everton fans? Let us know below.
