Poor Jack Grealish performance for Aston Villa probably proves Gareth Southgate right to suggest that he needs to playing in the Premier League

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Gareth Southgate was an intriguing spectator at Villa Park on Saturday to watch the Championship fixture between Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers.

Quite clearly the England boss was there to oversee the performance of Jack Grealish.

His timing was odd though considering that he has recently admitted that it would be easier to pick Grealish if he was playing in the Premier League (The Telegraph).

Last summer it was thought that Grealish would move to the Premier League. With Villa valuing their star man at £35 million (Daily Mail), however, no suitors were forthcoming.

The 23-year-old has been in great form of late, making it no surprise that talk of an England call-up has emerged.

It is now five wins on the spin for Villa who look a solid bet for the play-offs.

Sadly for Grealish, he failed to scale the heights of recent weeks against Blackburn.

A definite star of the future, the Villa midfielder was withdrawn late on as Villa looked to close out the win.

It’s not really any surprise that Grealish looked out of sorts. After all, he has played a lot of football recently having missed several weeks with an injury and as a result, looked jaded at the weekend.

It perhaps indicates that Southgate has a point.

Picking Grealish on a consistent basis will be a lot easier when he is playing regular football in the Premier League.

Southgate can’t really justify selecting a player from the second tier unless he is really setting the division alight.

Grealish isn’t doing that just yet and a call-up does seem unlikely until he is playing regular football in the top-flight.