Former Aston Villa academy director Bryan Jones, who retired after a 31-year association with the club last September, talks about how Jack Grealish’s talent was there before the young player even got to the club.
People always talk about foreign players possessing great touch, control and passing ability but Jack Grealish had all of those attributes from a young age – and that wasn't anything to do with our coaching at Aston Villa. Jack was just a natural, so much so that by the time he reached year nine at school, which is under-14 going into under-15 level, you thought: 'This boy could be as good as he wants to be – provided he keeps his feet on the floor.'
Jack’s always known he’s got ability and he certainly won’t be overawed by playing in an FA Cup final. When he was in the academy he’d go past two or three players in tight areas and cross the ball and you’d think: ‘How the hell did he do that?’ But he’s never been one of those to stroll around like a peacock and say: ‘Look at me, I’m the best player in the world.’
Psychologically, there’s been very little work required over the years, apart from clipping his ear every now and then when he stepped out of line. We had him in the office a few times, usually after some rumour had come through the door. Sometimes Jack likes to be a sociable chap and he just needs to be careful – he’s a professional footballer now. To be fair to him, he’s received a lot of adulation over the past three months and, from what I hear from people who are still working with him, he’s fairly well grounded and long may that continue.
It didn't surprise me at all when Tim Sherwood gave Jack a chance. Kevin MacDonald, Tim's assistant, knew Jack from when he was working at the club before and he's also close friends with Tony McAndrew, Villa's youth team coach, so he was well aware of Jack's development.
If you’re looking at someone of Jack’s ability, whether you’re Tim Sherwood or the man off the street, you’d think he was ready for the first team. That said, Tim still had to be brave to throw Jack into what was an extremely difficult situation because that club – my club – was going down before he took over as manager.
When Jack was coming through the academy system we played him a couple of age groups above at times and used him on the wing, which just gave him that little bit of protection. But because he is such a clever player, and has that gift of being able to see things other players can’t, I always fancied him in that No 10 role.
If you’d have come along to Bodymoor Heath and watched Jack in those days, you would have seen him with his socks pulled up, not at half-mast. He would have attempted to lower them, much like wearing his shirt outside his shorts. Tony McAndrew was often heard to bawl across the field: ‘Jack, get that shirt in.’
Tony lost a lot of hair over the time Jack was playing in the youth team because we were constantly saying: ‘You don’t do things like that, you wear the full shin pads. You know what the injury situation is, with a player of your talent they won’t be looking at the ball, they’ll be looking at you.’ But when you move out of the youth circles, where we were fairly strong on discipline – only because long-term they need that discipline – you obviously don’t have that influence.
As well as Jack has done, he knows that he can still improve. If there is a weakness to his game at the moment it is that he can create things for others but at the point where you think he should shoot, he tends to slide the ball off. It was the same at youth level to an extent. He would go past three or four players, get to the edge of the box and you’d think: ‘Finish, go on, finish.’ But Jack wouldn’t pull the trigger. I would like to see him become more selfish in areas like that just to add to what he’s already got in game.
Jack’s got a good family behind him. His mum is tremendous and keeps everyone’s feet on the ground while I always had a really good relationship with his father, Kevin, who is a Villa fanatic. We had numerous conversations about whether Jack should play for England or Ireland, going right back to when he was an under-14 player and the interest in him first started to surface.
England shot themselves in the foot a little bit. As an under-15 Jack was called into their under-16 summer camp and he was either ill or injured while he was there, and sadly, for whatever reason, England didn’t follow up or check on how he was when he returned. They didn’t really pursue him for the next six months, so the father said it looks as though England aren’t interested so we’ll go and play for the Republic, which Jack did. The situation needs to be resolved at senior level but I think Jack and his father know what they’re going to do.
One of the questions already being asked is whether Villa can keep hold of Jack. He’s Villa through and through but he’s no fool and certainly his family would want to see, over the next six to eight months, Villa committed to bringing players in that will push them up the table.
At the same time Jack and his advisers need to be careful. All the big boys will be taking an interest in him, that’s absolutely certain – I knew that the top three or four clubs were into him from the age of 15. The pressure will be much greater now because those clubs will be offering substantially more than four or five grand a week to tempt him away. But Jack needs at least another season at Villa, where hopefully he’ll be selected week after week and the club will be able to bring in three or four decent players to improve the squad.
(Guardian service)
