Aston Villa will sell players, suggests manager Steve Bruce.
Jack Grealish is one of the best young players in the Championship, and with Aston Villa having FFP issues, there is no surprise to see Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool taking interest in signing the 22-year-old attacker, as reported by The Mirror.
With Villa to play in the Championship next season after failing to clinch promotion to the Premier League, it is almost inevitable that reported Tottenham and Liverpool target Grealish, who can operate as a winger or as an attacking midfielder, will leave the Villans this summer.
Villa manager Steve Bruce himself has admitted to Sky Sports that Grealish will be sold in the summer transfer window, but the former Hull City boss has also suggested that Jonathan Kodjia and James Chester will leave.
Ivory Coast international forward Kodjia, 28, is one of the best players at Villa, while 29-year-old Wales international Chester is one of the best centre-backs in the Championship.
When asked by Sky Sports if there is a scenario at Villa where not just Grealish, but Chester and Kodjia also may not play for the Villans again, Bruce said: “I think we have got to be truthful to the supporters – that could happen. That is the inevitability.”
Good transfer fees
One suspects that there will be quite a few clubs in the Championship and perhaps even in the Premier League who would be interested in Chester and Kodjia.
Chester – who has been on the books of Villa since the summer of 2016 when he joined from West Bromwich Albion for a transfer fee reported by The Daily Mail to be worth £9 million – is wanted by Brighton and Hove Albion and Stoke City, according to The Daily Mail.
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