OPINION
Mike Ashley must use all his cunning for Newcastle United to beat Tottenham to the signing of Jack Grealish this summer.
On the face of it, the north-east giants don’t have the financial firepower to match Spurs in the race to land the newly-available Aston Villa playmaker.
But Newcastle have a smart owner with a history of securing good deals for bargain prices in all his businesses and a manager in Rafael Benitez with an excellent record of improving dazzling young talents.
Grealish certainly fits into that category after an excellent finish to 2017-18 in which he played his best football since breaking into boyhood side Villa as a teenager when Tim Sherwood was manager.
With Villa in dire financial straits and having only just staved off the threat of administration by paying a tax bill, they will be forced to cash in on their prize playing asset this summer.
The Telegraph report Spurs chairman Daniel Levy will ignore the Midlands giants’ £40million valuation and attempt to snap up Grealish for just £15million.
At that price, the 22-year-old would not just be the bargain of the summer, but one of the bargains of the last decade.
Newcastle owner Ashley must play the same game as Levy and use all his persuasive and negotiating skills to give Benitez a player who can make a huge impact in the coming years.
The Chronicle claim the Magpies have placed Grealish on their summer target list.
They must go further and pull out all the stops to land a player who is the answer to the number 10 Benitez is seeking.
Ashley can sell him the dream – Grealish would walk into Newcastle’s starting XI but not Tottenham’s – and then nail Villa with an offer they can’t refuse at a cheap-as-chips price.
