Glen Johnson has admitted on Soccer Saturday (21/11/20 at 2:55 pm) that he ‘laughed’ when Tim Sherwood told him ‘a long time ago’ that Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish was going to be the ‘real deal’.
Sherwood managed Villa for a small period in 2015, which included a run to the FA Cup final, and during that run, he played a fresh-faced teenager against Liverpool at Wembley in the semi-finals.
It was the start of a journey for the Solihull-born playmaker because he walked away with the Man of the Match award against a side that had the great Steven Gerrard in their midfield.
But former England right-back Johnson now acknowledges that Grealish has ‘everything’ in his game and he is a player that can get ‘better’.
“I think he will [get better],” said Johnson. “I think he will also improve when he can focus on the parts of the game that he is good at, in terms of having someone like Ross Barkley around him that can also get the opponents attention.
“He is going to end up in better positions, in more space and in more opportunities to be dangerous. I think he will get better and he will get better with games.
“Tim Sherwood said to me a long time ago that he was going to be the ‘real deal’. At the time, I laughed it off and wasn’t too sure. But now he is showing me he can do everything. Before we laughed about it, the school captain trying to do everything for Villa. But now he’s in dangerous situations and brave enough to get on the ball and he’s becoming a real threat.”
Whilst Paul Lambert handed Grealish his debut, it was Sherwood who really put faith in him and pushed him into the first-team picture.
Whilst the former midfielder wasn’t in B6 for long, he did enough to start the journey Grealish is now on and the more mature playmaker is wowing one and all.
From his performances for England to his start to this Premier League season, there is no doubt that he is one of the best creative players in England’s top-flight.
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