Aston Villa were held to a 1-1 draw by Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday, as a stoppage-time equaliser from Evanilson cost the home side two points.
Ross Barkley had put Unai Emery’s side ahead with 14 minutes to play but the Cherries striker got on the end of a set-piece to head the ball past Emi Martinez deep into stoppage time.
The Villans did not get a second goal to finish the game off and, therefore, gave Bournemouth a chance to steal a point in the dying embers of the match.
What Villa could have done with a mercurial talent like Jack Grealish, who left the club to sign for Manchester City in 2021, to win them a tight game.
Jack Grealish's Aston Villa career
The attacking midfielder came through the academy system at Villa and produced six goals and nine assists in 43 U21 matches before his first-team breakthrough.
He then emerged as a key player for the senior team and racked up 32 goals and 41 assists in 213 appearances for Villa’s first-team before his move to the Cityzens.
After helping Villa to secure promotion in the 2018/19 campaign, scoring six goals and providing eight assists, Grealish scored 14 goals and assisted 16 in two Premier League seasons.
His form convinced Manchester City to splash a then-record British transfer fee of £100m to sign him at the end of the 2020/21 campaign – a year after they had released a player who could have been their next Grealish, Callum O’Hare.
Callum O'Hare could have been the next Jack Grealish
Aston Villa once thought that they had their next version of Jack Grealish on their hands when the attacking midfielder was coming up through the ranks in the academy.
First Impressions
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He has been compared to the now-Manchester City and England star in the past, due to the fact that they are both diminutive playmakers who are excellent with the ball at their feet, both came through the academy at Villa, and both once sported the same slicked back hairstyle.
Appearances
43
61
Goals
6
15
Assists
9
10
As you can see in the table above, they performed to a similar level in the U21 set-up with the Villans, as they both provided quality by scoring and assisting goals as versatile attacking midfielders, but only Grealish was able to translate that over to the senior side.
O’Hare was never convincing enough on the pitch when given a chance in the first-team, providing zero goals and one assist in nine appearances, and was released on a free transfer in the summer of 2020.
He then racked up 22 goals and 30 assists in 182 appearances for Coventry City in all competitions during a four-year spell with the Sky Blues, before his move to Sheffield United on a free transfer earlier this year.
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The fact that O’Hare spent four years in the Championship with Coventry and sealed a move to another Championship team this year suggests that Villa have not missed out too much with the attacking midfielder, who is now 26 and yet to make his Premier League debut.