Aston Villa excruciatingly missed out on a Champions League spot on the final day of the Premier League season as a controversial 2-0 away loss at Manchester United went completely against them.
Unai Emery’s men won’t have dwelled on this disappointment for too long, however, with the grandeur of Europe’s elite competition actually congesting their fixture list across a busy 2024/25, leaving them potentially a little empty in energy to push into those top five positions.
It could also be a summer of much change at Villa Park with Emiliano Martinez and Emiliano Buendia set to leave the West Midlands giants, alongside a whole host of exciting additions potentially entering the building.
Whenever it comes to new faces joining the Villans’ ranks, the Premier League high-flyers will surely always be on the lookout for their next Jack Grealish, with a reunion deal also not completely off the table.
Grealish's current situation at Manchester City
It’s been bubbling away in the background for some time now, but the former homegrown Villa talent could now finally exit the Citizens this summer, having been left out of Pep Guardiola’s camp for the upcoming Club World Cup.
Unfortunately for Grealish, his time at City has now been reduced to a sorry state of affairs, with the former £100m buy only starting seven top-flight games last season.
It’s a far cry away from the days where Grealish would terrorise many a Premier League defence donning Villa claret and blue – as seen in his 32 goals and 43 assists from 213 Villa contests – with the ultimate confidence boost needed for the 29-year-old to salvage his fading career potentially an emotional return to home soil.
However, Emery and Co. could instead go after this alternative target away from sentimentally snapping up Grealish, with this fresh target displaying shades of Grealish’s game all across his own bumpy career path.
The "special" Aston Villa target who has shades of Grealish
After all, Villa Park will be seen as a worthwhile next destination for this low-on-confidence winger, considering Marcus Rashford managed to collect a promising four goals and six assists this season just gone for Villa on loan, after the start of his messy Manchester United divorce came to the surface.
Jadon Sancho is also deep in his own exit route out of the Red Devils, with a report from TEAMTalk earlier this week speculating that United are desperately trying to offload their expensive flop, which has led to Villa taking an interest in the out-of-sorts attacker as a potential Rashford replacement.
There is some method to Villa’s madness here with Sancho displaying flashes of his “special” quality – as he was lauded by Enzo Maresca during his brief Stamford Bridge stay – at Chelsea, as seen in his promising tally of five goals and ten assists in West London.
With 12 strikes also next to his name during his cursed United stint, it’s not completely ludicrous to suggest that Emery can work his magic on another Red Devils outcast here.
His swagger down the left and ability to twist and turn defenders for fun at his peak, not far off Grealish’s own exuberant game, when confidence is also coursing through his veins.
Indeed, that similarity in possession is seen in the fact that Grealish ranks in the top 1% among his European peers for progressive carries per 90, as per FBref, while Sancho is not too far behind, amid his ranking in the top 13%.
LW
Sancho
61
7
11
RW
Sancho
19
4
0
CF
Sancho
2
1
0
AM
Sancho
1
0
0
LM
Sancho
1
0
0
LW
Grealish
121
24
23
AM
Grealish
26
1
4
LM
Grealish
11
2
2
CM
Grealish
8
0
2
CF
Grealish
3
0
0
RW
Grealish
2
0
0
SS
Grealish
1
0
0
Sourced by Transfermarkt
It’s even clearer from the table above where both Sancho’s and Grealish’s strengths lie, with Emery potentially getting the best out of the ex-Borussia Dortmund man to come by playing him down his preferred left flank, away from shoehorning him in elsewhere. With a transfer value of £31m, according to Football Transfers, a move could be a no-brainer.
Both players find themselves at a crossroads in their careers, with Grealish a certainty to leave the Etihad, alongside Sancho at Old Trafford – the latter could well thank Villa Park down the line for mending his broken career.
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