NSWE can show Aston Villa ambition by avoiding swift Jack Grealish repeat

Aston Villa are slowly building under the ownership of Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens.

Promotion from the Championship in the owners’ first season has been backed up by year-on-year progression in the Premier League.

Dean Smith must take his fair share of praise for Villa’s progress, but Jack Grealish was arguably even more influential than the club’s former head coach during those first three seasons.

NSWE built around Grealish before reluctantly wishing him well on his way to Manchester City in August.

The mega-rich owners secured a British-record transfer fee of £100million for Grealish, but they would have preferred him to stay.

Anyway, enough about Grealish. Villa’s owners will face a test that’s within their control in the next summer window.

As reported in January, Matty Cash has admirers at Atletico Madrid and the Spanish club could test Villa’s resolve.

Cash, 24, is the only player in Villa’s squad to have started every Premier League game this season.

Granted, Cash is devoid of serious competition for his place, but the right-back has shown great improvement since arriving from Nottingham Forest in 2020.

Now a Poland international, it shouldn’t come as a great surprise that Atletico boss Diego Simeone has taken a shine to Cash.

Simeone probably sees Cash as a similar project to Kieran Trippier - who Atletico are looking to replace after selling him to Newcastle United in January.

When Trippier joined Atletico in 2019, his defensive abilities were questioned. After more than two years under Simeone, that is no longer the case.

Explaining Trippier’s enormous improvement under Simeone last year, England boss Gareth Southgate said: “People are still seeing the lad that was at Spurs a couple of years ago and