Aston Villa Star Jack Grealish Admits to 'Disappointment' at Failed Tottenham Transfer

Aston Villa attacking midfielder Jack Grealish admits he is 'disappointed' that his summer transfer to Tottenham didn't go through, and claims that he would be in contention for an England call-up if he had made the step up.

It looked like Villa would be forced to sell Grealish as the club descended into financial crisis under previous owner Dr Tony Xia. HMRC issued a winding-up order against Villa in June over an unpaid tax bill.

The Villans were saved from disaster by the takeover of Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, who then blocked Tottenham's attempts to sign Grealish for £25m.

Grealish signed a new five-year contract with the Championship side this week, but he admits that he would have liked to join Tottenham.

"Of course there's going to be disappointment there. They've beaten Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford, they're playing Barcelona in the Champions League next week," Grealish told the Telegraph.

"I felt that if I'd gone there I could have maybe been in the England squad by the end of the year. At the start of the season my head was swivelled, it was all over the place. Even after the transfer window closed, until the end of August, I wasn't right." 

Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/GettyImages

Grealish played a major role in helping Aston Villa reach the Championship playoffs last season despite a long injury lay-off, but he has zero goals and only one assist to his name so far in what has been a troubled start to this campaign.

Steve Bruce's side have won just three of nine league games and sit 13th in the table.