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Jack Grealish is a figure who is never far from the headlines.

Back in March, the Villa skipper was punched by a Birmingham fan who ran on the pitch. His response wasn’t to lash back and throw expletives. Instead, he got up and carried on as though nothing had happened.

It was a testament to the maturing figure he’s become under Dean Smith this term.

As a result, it’s no surprise that both Tottenham and Crystal Palace have shown interest in the player in the last two months.

Grealish’s influence over this Aston Villa side has been significant and as they sit on the verge of potentially achieving promotion back to the Premier League, he’s never been needed more by his club.

If the Villans were to lose him this summer it would be an almighty blow, even if they do have Conor Hourihane and John McGinn. After all, this has arguably been the 23-year-old’s best season to date.

He’s been named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year and also netted more goals, six, than he’s scored in an entire campaign before.

But it’s not his ability to find the net in fantastic fashion, as he has done this term, or dribble past several players that stands out most, it’s his remarkable consistency in terms of chance creation and key passes.

In the Championship, there have been only two games where he’s failed to pick out a single key pass, one of which came the match before Steve Bruce was sacked. The only other exception was in a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest in March.

Before the club’s draw with Leeds last weekend, the creative midfielder had gone six games in a row where’d not made less than two key passes a game.

In total this season, Grealish has made 72 key passes in the league. It seems almost ridiculous that he’s only claimed six assists.

However, that isn’t a number to be ashamed of. Like his goals tally, it’s his best return in a single season and he’s only going to go from strength to strength.

As Villa gear up for the play-offs, not only is the club’s future on the line but so is Grealish’s.

He’ll be the key to unlocking defences but should his side fail to make it back to the top-flight, he may well find himself packing his bags.

[ad_pod ]Some Sheffield Wednesday fans on Twitter have backed Steven Fletcher to beat Michael Hector in the race for the club’s Player of the Season awardThe award may well be tightly contested between the pair after the Owls’ incredible second half of the season under Steve Bruce.Unfortunately, the Owls look like they will miss out on a play-off spot late in the season despite their upturn in form since Bruce took charge.

Many fans have backed the Scottish striker to beat out the Chelsea loanee to the award after his rich vein of goalscoring form as of late.

The 32-year-old has banged in 11 goals for Wednesday so far this season including six in his last 12 matches for the club.

Former Wigan & Fulham man, Jimmy Bullard recently showed that he’s still got it! Check out the video below…

Hector has been equally impressive at the back. The 26-year-old has become somewhat of a fans’ favourite at Hillsborough due to his strong performances, but that hasn’t been enough for the following Hillsborough faithful to choose him over Fletcher.

Here’s what Wednesday fans have been saying on Twitter…

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Premier League experience is considered amongst the most valuable commodities for any prospective new signing – that is if you are a club residing within England’s top-flight of, course. The obsession with signing players who have already sampled their talent within the division derives from an arrogance and artificially inflated sense of self-importance that champions the Premier League as the world’s best division.

Only the most complete players can do it on a cold, rainy, Tuesday night in Stoke. Even in the absence of the Bet365 Stadium the theory which champions England’s top-flight as the most challenging in world football still holds perennial truth for an overwhelming majority of supporters.

That commonly accepted opinion has filtered into the minds of the decision-makers who are exposed to overwhelming pressures from expectant fans on social media. Supporters want to see new signings arrive every summer, especially those who have successfully auditioned for a Premier League role and been given the green light by Simon Cowell and his contingent of equally insufferable judges.

This criminal fallacy of the division’s relative competitiveness to Europe’s other top-divisions could inadvertently be corrupting the recruitment process in some of England’s top clubs.

Tottenham Hotspur, for example, have already been linked with summer moves for Michael Keane and Ryan Fraser. The Daily Express – albeit not renowned for their transfer story to confirmed transfer strike rate – report that Pochettino has identified Keane as a player he wants, while the Daily Mirror believe the Lilywhites have been scouting Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser.

Let’s be clear on who we’re dealing with here. Keane, despite Everton’s decision to part with £30 million for his services and his recent England call-up, has been inconsistent since leaving Burnley in 2017 and is not a unanimous first-choice for Everton supporters.

Meanwhile, Fraser, who cost just £432k in 2013, has been a scuttling, jet-heeled menace for the Cherries this season, cutting a demeanour of a supercharged bulldog with every rapid stride forward. His reward has been six goals and ten assists in the league – an outstanding record which most top-six wingers would scoop deserved acclaim for. Last season, though, he was not a guaranteed starter for the entirety of the season and he is yet to prove himself over an extended period of time. 

It’s important to remember that there are some players who are tailor-made to thrive within a mid-table club and, equally, destined to fail after taking a major step up in class.

Differing styles of football naturally offer differing levels of compatibility for the players who operate within them. Riyad Mahrez has fallen victim to that intrinsic problem at Manchester City, Christian Benteke endured a similar career pattern at Liverpool and Morgan Schneiderlin epitomised mediocrity after swapping Southampton for Manchester United.

While the argument here is certainly not to complete undermine the importance of experience in England’s top-flight, there is ample evidence from transfers during the 2018/19 season that prove it’s a factor which is fundamentally facile and blindly overstated.

According to an article published by The Guardian, Whoscored.com’s head of content, Martin Laurence, has revealed that Ricardo Pereira, Raul Jimenez, Joao Moutinho, James Maddison, Lucas Digne, Fabian Schar, Jannik Vestergaard and Felipe Anderson are, statistically speaking, all contenders for signing of the season; not a single one of the aforementioned players had set foot in the Premier League prior to their summer arrival.

Youri Tielemans, another signing who has thrived on his maiden campaign in England’s top-tier, is omitted from the list due to his transient stay in the top-flight, but a place amongst the signing of the season contenders would surely have been cemented if Leicester City had landed him in the summer of 2018.

A player’s suitability to a particular football club should be judged based on an accumulation of factors and if Premier League experience falls into that profile then that should be regarded as nothing more than a bonus.

Fraser is a poor-man’s Son Heung-min, but he is excelling at the right level for a player of his calibre. Keane is lacking the technical prowess to suit the demands of Pochettino’s system, yet he is a solid central defender for a Europa League standard side.

These pertinent acknowledgements which lie so clearly in plain sight should not be ignored simply because both players have performed to a decent standard in the division which Tottenham possess ambitions of winning.

Players with greater potential to become key cogs in the Tottenham machine are waiting across Europe and beyond.

Fraser and Keane have, quite simply, found their level.

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Tottenham Hotspur fans have been debating the future of Toby Alderweireld on Twitter.

The central defender has a £25million release clause in his contract and could depart Spurs this summer.

Alderweireld’s current contract expires at the end of next season but Spurs will be unable to reject a bid if it triggers the aforementioned clause.

Nevertheless, the Belgium international has not been phased out under manager Mauricio Pochettino this season, making a total of 40 appearances in all competitions.

Indeed, Pochettino has trusted the defender in many of Spurs’ biggest games this season; he played in both Champions League group stage matches against Barcelona and also played 90 minutes in each of the last-16 ties against Borussia Dortmund, as Spurs won 4-0 on aggregate.

He has missed just three Premier League outings this term – against Newcastle United, Arsenal and Southampton – and many fans have been impressed with his dedication even with a summer move seemingly looming.

Debating his future on Twitter, many believe he has even earned the right to choose his next destination himself, while others are hoping he moves abroad instead of to a domestic rival. And some are still hopeful that he could choose to stick around. Take a look at the best of the reaction below!

Everton haven’t been at their best throughout the current campaign but they’re slowly starting to build up ahead of steam, having taken nine points from their last three Premier League fixtures. 

The Toffees’ rise in form has been great for supporters to watch but it won’t mean anything if they fail to secure a European spot from here on in until the end of the season.

Of course, one player who could play a huge part in the Toffees’ European push is Richarlison. He’s valued at £71 million, according to CIES (via Daily Mail), which is a crazy amount of money when you consider the fact he was signed for £50 million (as per BBC) back in the summer transfer window.

Indeed, the Brazilian has been impressive this season but he’s not done enough to suggest he could attract a fee of £71 million and his value on Transfermarkt is only £40.5 million.

His 13 goals in all competitions have certainly helped Everton but some fans may have been expecting a better return from a player who broke their club’s transfer record. He’s looked dangerous at times but he’s also gone missing on a number of occasions against some of the bigger sides, which hasn’t helped the Toffees.

Of course, he still has plenty of potential at the age of 21 but Farhad Moshiri must think about possibly selling him if he can attract a fee of £71 million, as a £21 million profit would be great for the Toffees and it would allow them to go out and sign someone like David Neres who’s thriving right now.

With lots of areas requiring improvement in the summer transfer window, perhaps selling Richarlison would provide the club with enough money to go out and bring in the right players who can help them challenge the top six teams.

Everton fans, do you think you should sell Richarlison if he can attract £71 million? Join the discussion by commenting down below! 

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Birmingham City’s clash with Aston Villa on Sunday was overshadowed by an incident involving a fan, but one Blues player also showed a real lack of maturity and let the occasion get the better of him.

On the chalkboard

With eight bookings to his name this season prior to kick-off and coming back into the starting XI having been rested for the defeat against Hull City at the KCOM Stadium previously, Maikel Kieftenbeld needed to not let the derby atmosphere affect him early on at St Andrew’s on Sunday.

I wrote last week that the 28-year-old should produce a fair tackle on Villans captain Jack Grealish in the opening exchanges just to let him know he was there, but that advice was only 50% heeded.

Instead, the Dutchman flew into the 23-year-old and picked up his ninth yellow card of the campaign with less than five minutes on the clock.

Costly yellow

The midfielder then knew that he had to be careful for the remaining 85 or so minutes in order to remain on the pitch, and that of course naturally took some of the bite and aggression out of his game as a result.

Kieftenbeld has become such a key player in the centre of the park for City over the course of the past couple of seasons, but he restricted himself following a daft decision.

It was of course Grealish who popped up the winning goal while John McGinn and Conor Hourihane also had efforts as Villa upped the ante, with the 28-year-old unable to get as close to those players as he would have liked.

Next time the former Netherlands U21 international needs to play the occasion rather than letting it play him, as his yellow was one of the contributing factors in why Birmingham ultimately slipped up.

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Southampton centre-back Maya Yoshida returned to the starting XI for the must-win clash against Fulham on Wednesday night and helped his side to a 2-0 win, making manager Ralph Hasenhuttl look very silly in the process.

The south coast outfit knew realistically pre-match that they needed to take the three points in order to boost their chances of avoiding relegation, and a victory would move them 10 clear of the 19th-placed Cottagers.

That is exactly what they got ahead of tough-looking fixtures against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur next as they moved up to 17th and two points ahead of Cardiff City, and their defence was particularly impressive at St Mary’s.

Jack Stephens dropped to the substitutes’ bench after playing a major role in the majority of the goals the south coast outfit had conceded in recent times, with Yoshida replacing him and slotting in alongside Jannik Vestergaard and Jan Bednarek.

The Japan international had been part of a side that had kept the only clean sheet under Hasenhuttl’s tutelage – the 0-0 against Chelsea on January 2 – prior to jetting off to represent his country at the Asian Cup, where they were beaten in the final by Qatar.

However, on his return the 30-year-old had to settle for a spot on the bench in the previous two fixtures with the Austrian manager continuing to keep the faith with Stephens despite his errors, the last of which came in the 2-0 reverse against Arsenal at the weekend when his poor back-pass eventually led to a second goal for the Gunners.

Yoshida came in and did exactly what was needed against Claudio Ranieri’s strugglers by producing a dominant display, making two tackles, seven clearances and winning four aerial duels to keep Aleksandar Mitrovic and co at bay.

The Japanese star also showed his composure when he did have the ball with a passing accuracy of just under 85%, more than either of his central defensive teammates, in what could prove to be a season-defining triumph.

Hasenhuttl was certainly made to look really silly following his influential player’s display, and it is even clearer now that he should have been back in the side as soon as he returned to England earlier this month.

Everton fans will want to see reinforcements arrive at the club in the summer and build on their rather disappointing season.

Marcel Brands could be the man to help them bring to some talented players to Goodison Park in the future and it appears he could be about to help them bring a talented youngster to the club.

What’s the News?

According to a report by Calciomercato, Everton have a strong interest in PSV Eindhoven’s Joel Piroe.

The striker has been in fine form for the Eredivisie’s developmental side and is available on a free transfer in the summer when his contract expires.

However, Everton will face some tough competition with the likes of Inter Milan and Juventus all believed to be tracking the 19-year-old ahead of a possible move.

The Verdict:

Piroe clearly looks to be a player with a bright future ahead of him, as he has registered 10 goals and two assists in his 19 games so far and has drawn interest from some of Europe’s top clubs.

And, this is where Everton could look to use Brands to their advantage and lure him to the Premier League.

The director of football is understood to still have a solid relationship with the Dutch outfit from his time there prior to joining the Toffees and has a track record of knowing which young players will turn out into quality stars when they are older and more established.

However, as mentioned Juventus are strongly interested and are already believed to have offered Piroe a five-year deal to join them, with the forward initially going out on loan in his first season.

But a move to Italy could work in Everton’s favour temporarily, as they may be able to take the player on a temporary basis should such a scenario happen, despite the Serie A giants having already ‘studied a path’.

Everton fans, do you think Brands could be used as an advantage to beat off the competition and land Piroe in the summer? Join in with the discussion by letting us know your thoughts below.

Southampton look dangerously close to suffering relegation, and with that, they can wave goodbye to all the perks of being a Premier League side.

Amid fresh rumours that Southampton are ready to ramp up their interest for highly-rated French youngster Jean-Kevin Augustin, we find ourselves wondering why the striker would want to exchange Red Bull Leipzig for struggling Saints on the south coast (source: Daily Mail).

That said, here are TWO reasons we’ve decided their chase for the player is doomed…

Finances

First off, and perhaps most importantly, is the money.

Southampton are reportedly willing to meet Leipzig’s £35m valuation for the forward, which seems a little farfetched given their current circumstances.

Potential relegation into the Championship isn’t a calling for frivolous spending. It is the opposite. Clubs tend to buckle down financially and prepare for the long and arduous climb back into the topflight; no recruitment, no nothing; just saving and selling.

To suggest that the Saints, who aren’t exactly market powerhouses in the first place, are now willing to spend this much on a relatively unproven play is nonsensical.

Why would he?

It is naïve and almost insultingly arrogant to just assume any player wants to join the Premier League as soon as it comes knocking.

We’ve shown time and time again that players progress can be stunted by the warzone that is top flight team selection.

There’s a reason English youth players are looking towards Germany and other major leagues in Europe to get their chance, after all.

Think Jadon Sancho.

Augustin is playing at a club who have given him a good chance to further his career in one of the most progressive and forward-thinking divisions in the world.

Why would he give that up for an endangered Southampton side who already have a top quality prospect in Michael Obafemi?

Many Everton fans on Twitter have slammed Sam Allardyce for comments made in the aftermath of the club’s 3-1 win against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Having managed the two clubs previously, it made sense that the former England boss would be one of the pundits in the BT Sport studio at Goodison Park.

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The 65-year-old was then asked the positions he thinks the Merseyside outfit need to strengthen in this summer, to which he replied, as per The Liverpool Echo: “I think midfield he would want to strengthen, central defender as well. If he gets the right players that will only make them better and that sometimes only needs to be two or three quality players. Not six or seven.”

The transfer advice from Big Sam certainly didn’t go down too well with some of the Goodison Park faithful on Twitter responding to a post about the quotes by The Liverpool Echo’s Everton account for news, with them obviously still having bad memories of his time in charge at Goodison before Marco Silva came in.

Indeed, Allardyce may have led them to an eighth-placed finish in 2017/18 having taken over in December, but they also only won six and lost eight of the final 20 matches of the campaign, all while not playing what could be classed as an attractive style of football.

One even brought up one of the manager’s signings who has flopped – Cenk Tosun who is currently on loan at Crystal Palace and scored 10 goals in 51 games for Everton – as a reason why he shouldn’t be offering any advice at all.

Others chose to focus on the fact that a manager like Ancelotti, who has won top-flight titles in England, France, Germany and Italy, as well as three Champions League titles as a manager, would be interested in what Allardyce has to say.

Did he really play for us?! No Everton fan has managed to name all of these obscure Toffees players….

They’ve probably got a fair point in that respect, but as one points out he certainly isn’t wrong in his comments that Everton need a new centre-back, while you could argue that a central midfielder should be on the list, too.

Additionally, he is probably right that Ancelotti needs to target two or three quality players rather than simply going mad in the summer. The 60-year-old will know this, though.

In other Everton news, the club has reportedly joined the race to sign a European starlet once described as a “wonderful player” by Jurgen Klopp…