Jack Grealish return: Unai Emery question over Aston Villa transfer

Aston Villa bringing Jack Grealish back to the club from Manchester City would "make sense", Darren Bent has said.

Speaking on talkSPORT (2 January, 5:44pm), Bent said that with Grealish on the outer at the Etihad Stadium, signing for Villa would be a good move, if Unai Emery would take him.

The Lions would need to pay north of £60million to Manchester City to bring Grealish back to Villa Park, but Bent backed the 29-year-old to get back to his best if he were to don the claret and blue again.

He said: “The only place to me, that would make sense for (Grealish), is to go back home – that’s back to Villa, but it’s whether Unai Emery wants that.

"(With) the quality that he’s got, I’ve got no doubts that he can get back into that squad, and then eventually back into that team.

"I know things are going well (for Villa) now – but he is top quality, Jack Grealish.”

Jack Grealish to return to Aston Villa

While Grealish was the talismanic figure Villa needed to finally drag them out of the Championship and play a big part in solidifying their Premier League place, both club and player have moved on since.

Selling their number 10 to City for a British record £100million in 2021 has proven to be a shrewd piece of business on Villa's part, allowing them to build a squad which now sits pretty in the Champions League.

Grealish, meanwhile, has seen his goal return in all competitions deplete year-on-year since joining the current Premier League champions, and now 29, such an expensive outlay wouldn't be wise.

Villa are already teetering on the edge when it comes to their own PSR limits, and with moves costing potentially half of Grealish's valuation in the pipeline [Daily Star, 30 December], shelling out £60m on him may not go down well.

Not one Villans fan would pass up the opportunity to see Grealish firing home at the Holte End once again, but the diverging paths he and the club have gone on since 2021 make a reunion look unlikely.

In other Aston Villa news, a former Premier League referee reacted to the Lions' latest behind-the-scenes ticketing debacle.

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