Manchester United are unlikely to be interested in signing Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish, according to The Athletic‘s David Ornstein.

The former BBC reporter says that the Red Devils are not looking for a player that plays in the 24-year-old’s position, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side keen on recruiting a more defensively minded player:

“Some contacts tell me United are not in for Grealish and are focusing more on a holding midfielder than his kind of position. In a normal market, I think Villa would have been looking for around £40/50m if they got relegated, up to £90m if they stayed up.”

“But it’s not a normal market now. He will be keen for a big move whether it’s this summer or very soon.”

Grealish has been consistently linked with a move to Old Trafford by a number of different publications and journalists so Ornstein’s comments are a major surprise.

Whether his sources are simply wrong, we shall have to wait and see, but he is someone that is trusted to have the inside scoop on a lot of transfer activity.

There had been suggestions that Grealish’s antics during the lockdown may have put off United from making a bid but it appears there is more to it than that.

From what Ornstein says, a move for someone like Leicester’s James Maddison could also be ruled out, although the claims about recruiting Atletico Madrid’s Saul Niguez do seem to have a lot more credibility now.