Tottenham tried to sign Aston Villa star in the summer.
Tottenham Hotspur tried hard to sign Jack Grealish in the summer, but not hard enough.
Spurs did not meet Aston Villa’s £30 million asking price and he remained with the Championship side.
On Tuesday night the opportunity Grealish had missed out on became very apparent.
Tottenham were playing in the San Siro against Inter Milan in the Champions League, and Grealish was featuring for Villa in the Championship against Rotherham.
Grealish to his credit has got his head down and carried on, with no moaning, and he has been an asset for Villa this season.
What nobody saw coming was his role changing, with Grealish shunted out to play on the left.
This has been to accommodate new signing John McGinn, an arrival from Hibernian, and he partnered Conor Hourihane in central midfield on Tuesday evening.
Grealish was on the left of midfield, a role in which he did not do too badly, but it’s not one to which he is ideally suited either.
Grealish completed 88 per cent of his passes against Rotherham, yet only created one chance, and both of his efforts on goal landed off target.
He is still searching for his first goal of the season and his only assist came on the opening day back on August 6.
Grealish isn’t really showing Tottenham they should have paid up, yet he isn’t really being put in a position to do so.
The North London side do look like they need some fresh legs in midfield and arguably their need right now for a central midfielder is even greater than Villa’s, with Steve Bruce preferring to play him out wide.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
