Martin Keown has been piling the praise on Jack Grealish following England’s 3-0 win over Wales on Thursday evening.
The former Premier League winner told talkSPORT (via Birmingham Live): ‘I thought Grealish was magnificent last night. The way he wants the ball in every situation, holding it, he is powerful, he has got that quality on the ball.
‘We are talking about comparisons to Gazza.’
On what was his first start for England, the Aston Villa academy graduate certainly didn’t disappoint.
Grealish – who The Daily Mail say earns £135,000-a-week – registered an assist for Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s opener with an exquisite cross right on to the Everton striker’s head.
In addition to that piece of quality, WhoScored states that the 25-year-old drew five fouls from Ryan Giggs’ men with his trickery – no player on the pitch was felled more.
Also, the Villa No.10 showed his industrial side with one tackle and one clearance. In terms of passing, he was withdrawn in the 75th minute with a success rate of 87.9%.
To compare Grealish to Gascoigne might be quite an overreaction from Keown given everything the ex-Newcastle maverick did for England – however, you can certainly see why he said it.
Gascoigne was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 for his services to the game, and was also named in the 1990 World Cup All-Star XI.
Grealish has some way to go to match the 53-year-old’s achievements, but he’s certainly a brave player of similar nature to the former Lazio man.
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