Tottenham transfer news: Aston Villa hopeful of keeping Jack Grealish

Villa will not sell the young midfielder for less than £40m as Steve Bruce calls on owners to hold onto star player

With just two days until the summer transfer window closes, Steve Bruce knows there will be a nervous atmosphere around Aston Villa as they face a battle to fend of Tottenham’s interest in Jack Grealish.

Grealish was an important part of Villa’s run to the play-off final last season and is open to leaving his boyhood club to play in the Premier League and Champions League.

Tottenham have actively been interested in signing Grealish before Thursday’s 5pm deadline and had a £20m bid rejected as Aston Villa hold out on their £40m valuation of the 22-year-old.

Grealish wants to play in the Premier League and Champions League (Getty Images)

After Villa’s 3-1 win against Hull in their opening Championship match on Monday night, Bruce said the club understand Grealish’s ambition and will not stand in the way of a move to Spurs if an agreement can be reached.

“He is young and ambitions and wants to play in the Champions League and we understand that,” said Bruce. “We are all trying our best to hang on to him but at the moment there is no decision to be made as they are not at the figure where the owners are even blinking."

It was initially expected that Grealish would depart Villa much earlier in the transfer window as the club plunged into financial trouble, which meant they could have been forced to sell some prised assets in order to raise quick funds to settle cash flow problems.

Grealish was integral in Aston Villa's run to the play-off final (Getty)

Immediate financial concerns have eased following the majority takeover by Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, however the club still require a large cash injection to get them through the season as Premier League parachute payments decrease.

"The owners have made it pretty clear that they don't want to sell him and that still stands. Now if they get to a magical figure, then we will see,” added Bruce. "I am fed up reading about it and I cannot wait until after Thursday. Nobody wants him to leave, but there is a human element to it too.

"He is an Aston Villa fan, his family are Aston Villa through and through, they are probably in the away end tonight [Monday] singing with the fans. It is an emotional thing for him, of course.

"It has been a difficult few weeks to say the least, but the new owners have taken over the club in a week," said Bruce, who is hoping to add Bristol City’s Joe Bryan to his side.

"You cannot buy a house in a week. That shows how real they are.”