Sherwood reveals Redknapp’s reason for not signing Grealish for Spurs
Tim Sherwood has revealed that he told Harry Redknapp to bring Jack Grealish to Tottenham when the Aston Villa star was just 16 years old but the former Spurs boss refused to do so. Grealish has come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years and is now seemingly a favourite for the […]
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Tim Sherwood has revealed that he told Harry Redknapp to bring Jack Grealish to Tottenham when the Aston Villa star was just 16 years old but the former Spurs boss refused to do so.
Grealish has come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years and is now seemingly a favourite for the England squad ahead of this summer’s Euros.
The Villa man is undoubtedly one of the most sought after players in the Premier League and is estimated to be worth over £100m.
The 25-year-old was heavily linked with a move to Spurs in 2018, with reports indicating that Tottenham could have had their man for just £6m at the time.
The North Londoners will certainly rue their failure to get the deal over the line three years ago given what the midfielder has gone on to achieve.
However, if Sherwood is to be believed, it turns out that the Lilywhites could have potentially signed Grealish even earlier.
The 52-year-old, who was one of Redknapp’s assistants during his time in charge of Spurs, revealed that he told the former Tottenham boss to sign the England star when he was still a teenager.
Sherwood said on the Studs Up Podcast (as relayed by HITC): “He was different. He just had a raw ability that you would not believe.
“I remember going to see him when he was 16 playing for the U18s at Bodymoor Heath the training ground of Villa. I was working with Harry (Redknapp) at Tottenham, but I remember going there and going ‘I want to see that kid Grealish play.’ He was playing against our U18s and he didn’t disappoint me.
“I remember saying to Harry, we had a player who Villa wanted in the first-team, I won’t mention the player’s name, and he wasn’t playing at Tottenham, and I said, get rid of him and say ‘give us Grealish and we’ll do a part exchange now’.
“but Harry was absolutely right, he said he wasn’t going to help him then, and by the time Grealish would’ve been ready to produce, Harry wouldn’t have been there, and no manager would have been, unless you’re Wenger with a 10-year stint or whatever.
“So it just doesn’t happen, so you learn and Harry was right, he wasn’t going to offer him anything and you might have to use the boy who I was talking about who was an established player who’d played international football, but I knew Jack was special.”
Spurs Web Opinion
This demonstrates exactly why most clubs have moved towards a sporting director structure rather than handing more power to the manager. Coaches do not last too long these days at clubs and they are thus likely to focus on the short-term, sometimes at the expense of the club’s long-term plans.
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