My mate’s mate’s cousin’s ex-girlfriend’s brother’s former room mate told me so.
You know we’re all only six people away from anyone in the world? At most.
We’re only six steps away from every thing in the world. At most.
We’re only a half dozen bad decisions or bad influences from shaping someone’s destiny.
If only Tom Cleverley had known how his actions would play out like a domino effect. Here’s how he could be held responsible for Jack Grealish eventually pledging his allegiance to England instead of the Republic of Ireland.
It involves six people innocently living out their lives, blissfully unaware that they were deciding someone else’s fate.
1. Tom Cleverley
Is this the root of it all?
In the biggest transformation since the latest body transformation was posted under better lighting and angles on your Facebook feed, Roy Keane decided that he couldn’t get enough of taking orders and became the assistant manager of yet another team, at Aston Villa.
A couple of months later Tom Cleverley joined Villa on loan.
Keane’s tenure was shorter-lived however. He was gone by November of the same year. Was Tom Cleverley to blame?
Reports of a training ground bust-up circulated in the media and apparently there was CCTV footage of Roy Keane pacing around outside Tom Cleverley’s house after his departure from Villa.
“The Irishman wanted answers from the on-loan Manchester United midfielder about reports that the training-ground row caused his departure,” an article in The Sun read.
“Keane waited impatiently outside for around 15 minutes but no one answered and he eventually stomped off.”
2. Roy Keane
If Tom Cleverley and his team mates really were what made Roy step away from the club scene, they could be held indirectly responsible for the effect it would have on Jack Grealish. Later in his career.
On some level.
Cleverley thought it might’ve been a good thing, that the players could relax more in the absence of the notoriously driven Keane. But it left the management short. It left them without his drive. Without his ambition.
3. Paul Lambert
With Keane jumping from a sinking ship, he left poor, old Paul Lambert all on his own.
The Villa manager was growing increasingly more stressed as the seasons passed, his team was coming under more and more pressure and Randy Lerner was vapourising himself and his wallet into any piece of thin air that would hold them (as long as the rent was cheap).
Keane left in November, Lambert’s last stand would be in February.
4. Tim Sherwood
The new era.
Geezer Tim jumped aboard the Villa wagon with his straight-talking, no-nonsense, proper-English bullshit.
At first, we despaired. Then, we were duped. At last, we despaired.
It was a hilarious roller-coaster of soundbites, mishaps and vines.
If he did one thing though, he brown-nosed the media and gave young talent its chance. He dipped into the underage teams and deployed youth when he could. Suddenly, Jack Grealish thrived.
People started to notice.
5. Roy Hodgson
Grealish was deployed in an attacking midfield role with Tim Sherwood’s let-off-the-leash Villa and he starred with Fabian Delph and Christian Benteke as Villa put together a string of impressive performances and results and surged to the FA Cup final out of nowhere.
So Roy (the English Roy) started snooping and Grealish began delaying a decision on his international future after being named Ireland’s under-21 player of the year.
“We’ve spoken to him and what we’ve said, quite simply, is that we think he is a very talented footballer. We think he could have a very good international career and we would be more than happy if he chose that career to be England.”
6. Jack Grealish
Suddenly Jack Grealish realises he’s good and he has his head turned.
He delays, he thinks, he stalls. O’Neill and Keane make advances, there’s no response.
Keane was pressed on the issue whilst he was still at Villa – he spoke about how parents come into these decisions too and remarked: “Knowing his (Jack’s) dad, we could be waiting a bloody long while.”
The matter doesn’t come to a head for nearly 10 months later. After Tom Cleverley joins Villa on loan, after he apparently leaks to the press reports that upset Roy Keane, after Paul Lambert is left on his own, Tim Sherwood plays Jack Grealish, Roy Hodgson notices Jack Grealish… the man himself makes a decision.
The aftermath of the aftermath is just nice irony.
Sherwood gets sacked, Remi Garde drops Grealish, Roy Hodgson says he’ll be waiting for a while for a cap, Ireland qualify for the Euros anyway.
Hilarious.
