Jack Grealish’s return to Aston Villa’s side appears to have made a massive difference to their fortunes.
Neil Mellor has told Sky Sports’ Soccer Special (broadcast on 22/4 from 14:00) that Jack Grealish has the potential to turn Aston Villa into a top-half team in the Premier League, but promotion is a must this season if the Villans want to keep their talisman.
Grealish has enjoyed an outstanding run of form for Dean Smith’s men. Since he returned from injury, Villa have won 10 games on the spin and are now guaranteed a play-off spot in the Championship having looked to have little chance before the attacking midfielder returned.
Villa are now looking like the team that everyone will want to avoid in the play-offs. No side has more momentum right now. And Mellor has suggested that the club have huge potential if they can get promoted and keep hold of their star player beyond this season.
“At Villa, I think there’s a lot of excitement,” he told Sky Sports. “And they’ll need to go up if they want to keep hold of Grealish. If they don’t go up, I worry that they will lose him. Obviously he could turn from being a club legend there for many years and potentially propel them to a top-half Premier League team to having to move on in his career if Villa don’t get over the line.
“They missed out in the play-off final last year. You’d think they’ve learned from that. The hunger will be a little bit more to achieve and not suffer the way they did last year but they’re in a fantastic position at the moment.”
Villa have not lost any of the last 15 games in which Grealish has played, and they have actually only dropped points on two occasions. Along the way, he has also scored six goals.
It is difficult to not wonder what Villa’s season could have looked like had Grealish been available during the near three month spell he spent on the sidelines.
Some will argue that the Villans would have been promoted. But with Grealish now back and the rest of the team thriving, it appears that there is every chance that that could still be how the club’s campaign ends.
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