The RJW63 Official Jack Grealish Appreciation Thread

[Keyblade]

25 minutes ago, luckyeddie said:

In the same way as Lance Armstrong was the best cyclist in the world. They are cheats and we all know it.  Does not change how good Grealish was, but everything he has won will forever have an asterisk next to it.

Not to him it won't. To the players, they won it by being and playing better than everyone else.

[Zatman]

4 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Not to him it won't. To the players, they won it by being and playing better than everyone else.

To the rest of the world they are financial dopers managed by a convicted drug cheat

[Stevo985]

During his final season with us not a single person on this forum would have said Grealish was below Young

[Keyblade]

Young was good but there's no way he was signing for a Barcelona or Real Madrid at the time. He signed for a declining Manchester United when he had a year left on his contract.

Grealish was very much world class. Top 5 left sided players in the world at the time and signed for the best team in the world for a then PL record transfer fee, which smashed City's record by at least £30m. Completely different levels.

[Zatman]

Just now, Keyblade said:

Young was good but there's no way he was signing for a Barcelona or Real Madrid at the time. He signed for a declining Manchester United when he had a year left on his contract.

Grealish was very much world class. Top 5 left sided players in the world at the time and signed for the best team in the world for a then PL record transfer fee, which smashed City's record by at least £30m. Completely different levels.

He signed for a Man United that had just played the Champions League final and had just coasted to the league by 9 points

[luckyeddie]

13 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Not to him it won't. To the players, they won it by being and playing better than everyone else.

No, he will believe everything was legitimate and above board, but his denial does not change the truth. LA probably believes he is still a legitimate multiple TdF winner.

[Keyblade]

Just now, Zatman said:

He signed for a Man United that had just played the Champions League final and had just coasted to the league by 9 points

Yeah and got completely schooled by Barcelona. Their days as a European power were over by then, and their days as a PL power were numbered as City were just picking up steam and won their first title in Young's first season. SAF was just about keeping them afloat.

Again, no way Young was signing for that Barca team. Yet Grealish signed for the modern version of them for a record fee. I don't think any of us would have considered Young world class at the time, no matter how much we liked him. He was probably in the tier below at his peak.

[Oaks]

6 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

During his final season with us not a single person on this forum would have said Grealish was below Young

Thats because Grealish's Villa story had not finished. But judge what they achieved at the club while here, Young was absolutely a better player over his time here...Jack just shone brighter for 2 thirds of a season behind closed doors. 

[Keyblade]

1 minute ago, Oaks said:

Thats because Grealish's Villa story had not finished. But judge what they achieved at the club while here, Young was absolutely a better player over his time here...Jack just shone brighter for 2 thirds of a season behind closed doors. 

He was excellent the season before that? And the one before that where we got promoted, where led us to a record breaking winning run. Possibly the most important season in our modern history. And, my personal favourite of his, the season before that under Bruce. I count 4 seasons there where he was our most crucial player and dragged us to 2 playoff finals and survival in the PL.

[Stevo985]

6 minutes ago, Oaks said:

Thats because Grealish's Villa story had not finished. But judge what they achieved at the club while here, Young was absolutely a better player over his time here...Jack just shone brighter for 2 thirds of a season behind closed doors. 

I disagree. And I suspect you would have disagreed a couple of years ago

[Keyblade]

If he didn't leave under such acrimonious circumstances I'm sure we'd remember his time here to be more important than Young's. The promotion alone was so pivotal to our history. We did and won nothing of note under MON, as good as three 6th place finishes were in a vacuum. The foundations were shaky and ultimately led to our demise. The reverse is true for our rise from the Championship. 

[Oaks]

2 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

I disagree. And I suspect you would have disagreed a couple of years ago

No i expected Jack to surpass him, just like i expect Martinez to surpass Bosnich now. I also think Ramsey could be better than both Young and Grealish. If this was a debate for who had the best 7 months in the last 2 decades i would agree.

[KentVillan]

52 minutes ago, Zatman said:

To the rest of the world they are financial dopers managed by a convicted drug cheat

This really has no bearing on how good Grealish is. The financial doping is what enables them to get the best players… if anything it shows how good Grealish is that he was targeted by financial dopers. 

[KentVillan]

“Haaland is worse than Shearer because City don’t abide by FFP” is a nonsense take, for example

[villa4europe]

44 minutes ago, Oaks said:

Thats because Grealish's Villa story had not finished. But judge what they achieved at the club while here, Young was absolutely a better player over his time here...Jack just shone brighter for 2 thirds of a season behind closed doors. 

That's not even close to being true

Its madness it's even being talked about

[KentVillan]

A few people are struggling to separate the question of whether Grealish is a bit of a snake from whether he’s a talented footballer.

I don’t much like him, and I think all the stuff about him screwing up his legacy and playing a boring role for a boring side is true … but he’s a really brilliant player.

[Keyblade]

It's weird because Young snaked us too. Dived at OT and all as we all remember. Coming back as an ancient defender seems to have rewritten his whole history.

[villa4europe]

8 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

It's weird because Young snaked us too. Dived at OT and all as we all remember. Coming back as an ancient defender seems to have rewritten his whole history.

But at least his PR team didn't get together with the clubs PR team and release a statement that grown men were naive enough to buy in to...

[Zatman]

9 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

It's weird because Young snaked us too. Dived at OT and all as we all remember. Coming back as an ancient defender seems to have rewritten his whole history.

In fairness Young never claimed to be a Villa fan while he was orchestrating moves every window

[Mark Albrighton]

29 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

“Haaland is worse than Shearer because City don’t abide by FFP” is a nonsense take, for example

In fairness I don’t believe that was expressed.

As far as I can see, this was the post that began it -

1 hour ago, luckyeddie said:

In the same way as Lance Armstrong was the best cyclist in the world. They are cheats and we all know it.  Does not change how good Grealish was, but everything he has won will forever have an asterisk next to it.

The post doesn’t say Man City cheated therefore Grealish isn’t really that good. In fact it states Man City cheating has no bearing on Grealish’s ability.

What is questionable is the legitimacy of winning the medals and trophies the way he/they did - not that the players didn’t have the ability to win it at all.

All that being said, frankly I don’t give any weight to what Grealish/Young/whoever did away from Villa when I think about the club’s best players. Because they weren’t at Villa when they did it, it’s irrelevant to me. Cahill went on to win loads away from the club. Sorry Olof, gotta make room for Gary.