It has been six years since Aston Villa were promoted back to the Premier League - and Jack Grealish has shared a double message to mark the occasion
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20:20, 27 May 2025
Jack Grealish could leave Manchester City this summer
Jack Grealish could leave Manchester City this summer(Image: Getty Images)
Jack Grealish has shared a message to the Aston Villa fans on the six year anniversary of their Championship play-off final win against Derby County.
The Villains won promotion back to the Premier League following a three-year absence after beating Frank Lampard's Derby 2-1 at Wembley on May 27, 2019.
Having finished fifth in the regular season and progressed past West Brom to reach the showpiece final, Villa edged past the Rams seal a place in the top flight.
Goals from Anwar El Ghazi and John McGinn put Villa 2-0 ahead in the final, and although Jack Marriott scored late on for Derby, it didn't matter to the end result.
Grealish didn't score or assist in the final, but he did make a valuable contribution throughout the season, directly contributing to 14 goals in 34 Championship matches.
Now, six years on from Villa's win against Derby and promotion back to the Premier League, Grealish has taken to Instagram to share two separate stories from the match.
First, Tyrone Mings posted an image of him lifting the play-off trophy with Alan Hutton, Grealish and McGinn in the background, with the caption: "6 years ago today [star-struck emoji]."
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Second, Jamie Smith, the son of then-Villa manager Dean, shared a couple of images, including one of Grealish celebrating, and the caption: "6 years since the playoff final win, some day this was!"
Grealish shared both of them to his Instagram story, as he remembered a moment and a game that has turned out to be monumental in Villa's rise to the top six of the Premier League.
29-year-old midfielder Grealish spent two more years at Villa, helping them remain in the top flight in 2019/20, before flourishing and cementing them as a mid-table out in the following campaign.
He scored seven times and added 12 assists in 2020/21 and impressed at Euro 2020, which was delayed due to the impact of Covid-19, and that contributed to him earning a £100million move to Manchester City.
Although Grealish had a huge hand in City's treble-winning campaign two years ago, his time at the Etihad Stadium has, overall, been disappointing. Since Pep Guardiola's side lifted the Champions League in June 2023, Grealish has scored six goals and provided eight assists in 62 appearances.
Grealish's form has dropped and Guardiola left him out of the City squad for their trip to Fulham on Sunday - a decision that has raised question marks over his long-term future in Manchester.
Guardiola insisted in his post-match press conference that his decision to leave out Grealish was "nothing personal", but left the door open for him to find a new club this summer.
"It was a selection," said Guardiola. "Of course, Jack has to play. He's an unbelievable player that has to play football every three days. It didn’t happen this season and last season either. He needs to do it, with us or another place.
"It's a question for Jack, his agent and the club. If he stays it will be fine and he will fight like he fought from day one to make a contribution, but not today."