Ray Parlour backs Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish for England & compares him with Jan Molby

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Jack Grealish helped his boyhood club Aston Villa to the Premier League last month.

Ray Parlour has backed Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish to break into the England squad next season as he claimed that he has an edge over the likes of Manchester City’s Phil Foden.

The TalkSport pundit also claimed that he can reach the levels of Anfield legend Jan Molby, who won numrous English league titles with the Merseyside club.

Playmaker Grealish was regarded as the best player in the Championship and many Villa fans are now backing him to break into Gareth Southgate’s squad now his boyhood club are in the Premier League.

Speaking to the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast Show on TalkSport (10/06/2019 at 7:40 am), Parlour believes that Grealish has the qualities to be an England player.

“I am really looking forward to seeing Jack Grealish in the Premier League next season,” Parlour told TalkSport. “If Jack Grealish does play week in, week out for Aston Villa, which he will do, it does give him a slight edge [over Foden]. I like Foden, but it’s such a shame that he’s in such a good side in that midfield.

“Him [Grealish], Maddison and all those other guys have big claims for that [midfield] area. We talk about being comfortable on the ball. He’s certainly comfortable on the ball. He’s very composed. Really impressed with the games I have seen him play. He always wants the ball, which is important and in tight little areas as well. And he knows what’s going on around him.

“I played against some great midfielders, you try and close them down and they are one step ahead every single time. People like Jan Molby, he didn’t move, but his passing ability was unbelievable. I think Jack can get to that stage. He seems to have matured now as a player.”

If Grealish can replicate the form he produced in the Championship in the Premier League then there is no doubt that he will be an England player sooner rather than later.

Added with that, given England’s problem in the middle of the park, it increases his chances of earning a cap next season, with the first set of international fixtures set to fall in September.

Dean Smith’s side made a return to the Premier League at the end of May when they beat Frank Lampard’s Derby County in the Championship play-off final at Wembley.