TAMMY ABRAHAM claims Jack Grealish is so good he reminds him of Eden Hazard. Abraham is spending the season on loan at Aston Villa from Chelsea – and he has marvelled at the ability of Grealish, 23. The England international says his team-mate has everything in the locker to reach the top and even compared […]
TAMMY ABRAHAM claims Jack Grealish is so good he reminds him of Eden Hazard.
Abraham is spending the season on loan at Aston Villa from Chelsea – and he has marvelled at the ability of Grealish, 23.
The England international says his team-mate has everything in the locker to reach the top and even compared him to old pal Hazard.
Abraham, 21, has seen first hand how good the Belgium star is as a player but he insists Grealish has the same talents.
Speaking on Villa’s YouTube show DriveTime, Abraham said: “Jack is an unbelievable player.
“The things he has, things he can do with the ball – you can’t teach it. He’s born with it.
“He reminds me of Eden Hazard. Once Jack adds a few more goals and assists, he’ll be on that level.
“He has the same attributes – the way he dribbles, protects the ball, sees a pass, plays one-twos. He’s very intelligent.
“Him coming back has been great for us.”
Grealish has long been regarded as one of the brightest young talents in the country but his progress has stalled since Villa’s relegation to the Championship.
He saw a potential move to Tottenham blocked last summer as the Midlands club kept their star player to help lead a promotion challenge.
But Spurs still retain an interest and are expected to return with an offer in excess of £25million this summer regardless of whether Villa make it into the Premier League or not.
And Grealish himself knows the time has come to make that step back to the top flight, after England boss Gareth Southgate made it clear he needed to be playing at that level to have a genuine chance of a call-up.
Southgate said: “Although we can see the quality, when the evidence of the opponent is a different level, that’s where it’s hard to directly correlate what that’s going to look like at a level above.
“I’m not going to say we won’t pick a player from the Championship because that could happen but it’s far more difficult to assess his level.”
