The RJW63 Official Jack Grealish Appreciation Thread

[Keyblade]

26 minutes ago, Oaks said:

Unlike your misses I require a little more. 

Uh okay. It's not that serious mate.

If you think Barry or Milner were better players than him, more power to you I guess. We might as well be watching different sports though.

[Keyblade]

4 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Grealish's output in terms of direct goals and assists has never been impressive. It speaks volumes about how **** good he is that it doesn't really matter.

Young or Grealish? I wouldn't think twice before picking Jack.

It's also not even true, their raw numbers are actually very comparable.

Young has only bettered Grealish's measly 26 game season once during his entire time at our club. 07/08 where he got 8 goals and 16 assists compared to Jack's 6 goals 12 assists.

His other seasons were almost identical to Jack's 8 goal 6 assist 19/20 season, his only other season in the PL with us. 7 goals/8 assists in 08/09 and 5 goals/9assists in 09/10. Mind you we finished 6th in all 3 of those seasons, meanwhile we barely escaped relegation in 19/20 then finished 11th in 20/21. Young wasn't some output monster for us, contrary to what nostalgia might make us think.

[Oaks]

51 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Said this before, grealish benefits from more exposure, I probably watched 95% of his games for us, whereas mcgrath I saw play for us less than 10 times and never in the flesh... He's comfortably the best villa player I've ever seen

Not our best player in decades but could have joined any club in the world, joined currently the best team in the world for a then record fee, was putting up PL leading stats, was putting up stats that was comparable with neymar and Messi... But wasn't as good as Gareth Barry? Come on

My point is not his ability as a player he had a superb 18 months of premier league football, i just need more than that after watching 30 years of Villa playing. Its one of the reasons why i was upset Jack left, i never got to see the peak Jack as that was when the stadiums were closed, but still his fleeting peak might have been way higher, but others have just contributed more to Villa on the pitch and thats just a fact i think.

[Oaks]

10 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Uh okay. It's not that serious mate.

If you think Barry or Milner were better players than him, more power to you I guess. We might as well be watching different sports though.

It was a joke i agree its not serious just a debate

[Wainy316]

11 minutes ago, Oaks said:

but still his fleeting peak might have been way higher, but others have just contributed more to Villa on the pitch and thats just a fact i think.

Well if you’d put it like that I think most people would have agreed with you 

[Oaks]

4 hours ago, Oaks said:

He's nowhere near our best player in the past couple of decades. He has a great 18 months in the premier league, but that's nowhere near what Benteke, Ashley Young, barry or even milner did. You could debate most gifted sure but i just cant accept that at all.

Could still change if he does come back however.

 

8 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

Well if you’d put it like that I think most people would have agreed with you 

I effectively did with this post.

[Follyfoot]

2 hours ago, Keyblade said:

20/21 Grealish was the best player I've seen play for Villa and I don't think I'll see a better one in my lifetime 

Sadly, you never saw Brian Little

[villa4europe]

3 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

Sadly, you never saw Brian Little

With streaming and what football now is I'd argue the vast majority of us have seen more of grealish than any other villa player who would make any kind of best player list

In all seriousness what do you reckon a sensible guess is for how many times Brian Little played a full 90 minute live game on TV?

[Follyfoot]

4 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

With streaming and what football now is I'd argue the vast majority of us have seen more of grealish than any other villa player who would make any kind of best player list

In all seriousness what do you reckon a sensible guess is for how many times Brian Little played a full 90 minute live game on TV?

Very rarely, I watched him live for the amount of times that he would’ve appeared in these days on television in home and away for seasons. I’m not being funny here he’s the best player I’ve ever seen in a Villa shirt, as we sang from the whole time, and in the 70s, Brian Little walked on water, and he did. Have a look at the goals he scored in the league cup campaign in 1977, never to be repeated.he won the entire competition 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Follyfoot

[Mark Albrighton]

I preferred Yorke. Just more the sort of player I find exciting to watch.

Saw plenty of him and the manner in which he left was not exactly dissimilar to the way Grealish left. So it’s not like Dwight benefits from a lack of sour grapes in that regard. In fact, if anything I found him leaving was a bigger hardship.

But y’know, I don’t think being in the top two, three or whatever players that I’ve ever seen play for the club is that much of a slight on Grealish. It’s pretty good going really.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Mark Albrighton

[Oaks]

11 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I preferred Yorke. Just more the sort of player I find exciting to watch.

Saw plenty of him and the manner in which he left was not exactly dissimilar to the way Grealish left. So it’s not like Dwight benefits from a lack of sour grapes in that regard. In fact, if anything I found him leaving was a bigger hardship.

But y’know, I don’t think being in the top two, three or whatever players that I’ve ever seen play for the club is that much of a slight on Grealish. It’s pretty good going really.

I agree with Yorke, but you cant compare the way they both left. That Everton game and saying he never wanted to play for the club again, completely different.

[Mark Albrighton]

2 minutes ago, Oaks said:

I agree with Yorke, but you cant compare the way they both left. That Everton game and saying he never wanted to play for the club again, completely different.

Ok, fair enough it further enhances my point then.

Yorke left under more of a cloud, but despite the manner of his departure I’m still prepared to rate his ability, his time here as the best I’ve seen.

[Xela]

Grealish was far more talented than Young. Not even close. Grealish was putting in world class performances, for a struggling/middling Villa. 

It was fleeting though. Burned very bright, for a short time. 

He's not half the player at Man City. 

At 44 years old, my Mt Rushmore of Villa is McGrath, Platt, Yorke and Grealish. 

[VillaChris]

Would genuinely put Benteke in there. He was incredible for months on end alongside a shower of s*** whereas the others were of course very good but plenty in overall strong Villa teams. He was our best all round CF since Yorke (at least until Diaby really gets going).

Benteke also regularly turned up in big games for us aswell.

Edited September 19, 2023 by VillaChris

[Keyblade]

19 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Would genuinely put Benteke in there. He was incredible for months on end alongside a shower of s*** whereas the others were of course very good but plenty in overall strong Villa teams. He was our best all round CF since Yorke (at least until Diaby really gets going).

Benteke also regularly turned up in big games for us aswell.

I don't think the likes of Young or Barry could have dragged us to safety 3 years in a row like Benteke did. 2013 Benteke was special. We'll be lucky if we ever have a CF that good again.

[VillaChris]

6 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

I don't think the likes of Young or Barry could have dragged us to safety 3 years in a row like Benteke did. 2013 Benteke was special. We'll be lucky if we ever have a CF that good again.

Barry gets in for longevity, basically our Giggs especially as he was top class in at least two positions over a long period of time.

Now Young was generally very good but in a very specific way and style under O'Neill. And it was for arguably a short period of time. His best season was 07/08, set up so many for Carew and Laursen that year but I don't think he was quite as good in 08/09 and his overall influence was starting to diminish in 09/10 (Milner was far more important that year once we moved him centrally). 10/11 Houllier had that fascination with playing him in number 10 position which didn't really work imo. Kudos for the second spell though, came back and played a big part in returning us to europe which he said he'd do in one of his first interviews after returning.

Emi-McGrath-Barry-Grealish-Benteke would be some five a side team.

Edited September 19, 2023 by VillaChris

[Zatman]

6 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Barry gets in for longevity, basically our Giggs especially as he was top class in at least two positions over a long period of time.

Now Young was generally very good but in a very specific way and style under O'Neill. And it was for arguably a short period of time. His best season was 07/08, set up so many for Carew and Laursen that year but I don't think he was quite as good in 08/09 and his overall influence was starting to diminish in 09/10 (Milner was far more important that year once we moved him centrally). 10/11 Houllier had that fascination with playing him in number 10 position which didn't really work imo. Kudos for the second spell though, came back and played a big part in returning us to europe which he said he'd do in one of his first interviews after returning.

Emi-McGrath-Barry-Grealish-Benteke would be some five a side team.

He won player of the month twice in 2008/09 and was one of the reasons we were so high in the table. He dragged us through poor performances. I remember a Sky game at Hull we were rotten and he won us the game with a cross that a Hull defender sliced in. Was another game at West Ham and the Everton one too

Young actually played more games for Villa than Grealish

[Pinebro]

13 hours ago, Oaks said:

This 100%, it winds me up when fans whos seen them both play put Jack in the team over Young. Their raw numbers are not even comparable.

It's just recent bias most likely.

Young was an insane footballer in the late 2000's

Edited September 20, 2023 by Pinebro

[Pinebro]

7 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Would genuinely put Benteke in there. He was incredible for months on end alongside a shower of s*** whereas the others were of course very good but plenty in overall strong Villa teams. He was our best all round CF since Yorke (at least until Diaby really gets going).

Benteke also regularly turned up in big games for us aswell.

Could be argued that it's easier to stand out when you are surrounded by absolute garbage

[bobzy]

27 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

It's just recent bias most likely.

Young was an insane footballer in the late 2000's

Young was part of a very good side, doing very good things.  His numbers were still basically the same as Grealish's, who was a youngster in a side battling relegation.  There's no recency bias about it; Young was very good but Grealish was genuinely special.  Irreplaceable.