How Grealish might have signed for Real Madrid or Man Utd

Robin Bairner

• 7 Aug 2021 03:41 CDT
• 3 min read

Jack Grealish is a Manchester City player following a Premier League record £100 million move from Aston Villa – but the England star might have instead moved to Real Madrid or Manchester United this summer.

Indeed, it was Villa’s preference that their star player moved to one of these two giants ahead of the Premier League champions.

The Birmingham club even made contact with these two clubs but were unable to broker a deal and had their hands tied over Grealish’s move to the Etihad Stadium.

The Athletic has dived deep into the days building up to the record-breaking transfer, unveiling every aspect of the deal in great detail. It has revealed that Villa were desperate to do a deal with another club.

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Why Villa did not want to sell to Man City

Aston Villa did not want to sell to the Etihad club because of their concerns over the financial clout of the Dubai-owned side. The report states that they are concerned about competition in the Premier League, with City having a capacity to outspend their rivals many times over. As such, they made it as difficult as possible for the Manchester club to sign Grealish.

This attitude vexed the player and his entourage, who were aware that they had a £100m release clause in his contract, which had been met by City. However, the Premier League champions did not know of this article and that allowed Villa to stall on the deal.

While they were doing that, they were busy looking for another buyer, turning to two of the game’s traditional big sides.

Real Madrid were called and there were questions asked with regards a swap deal with one or more players. Such are Los Blancos’ financial problems, though, that proved to be impossible.

Meanwhile, Manchester United were also sounded out but no deal there could be concluded either, despite the Red Devils’ long-standing interest in the player.

Man City, then, were left with a clear run to sign Grealish, despite Aston Villa’s reservations.