Jack Grealish is, for the time being at least, the most expensive player in British football history, with a £100 million ($137m) move taking him away from Aston Villa to Premier League champions Manchester City.
Few could have predicted such a meteoric rise during a three-season stint in the Championship between 2016 and 2019, with questions still being asked back then of the enigmatic playmaker's attitude and ability.
Fast forward to the present and Grealish has become a fans' favourite in the senior England set-up and a man Pep Guardiola was prepared to shell out a nine-figure transfer fee for - but how did such a transformation come about, and when were the seeds of success first sown?
Humble beginnings
Grealish first burst onto the scene at Villa as a mercurial 16-year-old talent, with his slicked-back hair and penchant for wearing socks around his ankles making him an easy target for more senior figures in a camp that were eager to test his mental and physical toughness.
Those tests were passed with flying colours, with former team-mate Alan Hutton - speaking in an interview via Coffee Friend - telling Goal of the welcome Grealish got to the first-team fold: "Let's kick him a few times and see what he's made of! He was fantastic. As a 16-year-old when he came round, you could tell that he had unbelievable ability at such a young age.
"Yes, he had his up-and-down moments. He was a young boy, he messed about for a couple of seasons, but everybody involved at Villa knew exactly what he was capable of and it was just about giving him that platform to go and express himself. What he does in games is exactly what he does in training. It was there for us all to see and it doesn't surprise me now, after watching him come through all the levels and playing with him, that he has reached the top."
Hard work
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Grealish picked up an unfortunate reputation for being a bit of a party boy in his early years, but added experience and responsibility brought with it greater maturity, and there has never been any doubting his work ethic.
Hutton added: "He's a confident boy, but his whole personality has changed. When he was a bit younger, we saw the instances of him going out and things happening and making the press for the wrong reasons, but around the time that he got the armband at Villa, you saw a massive change in him. He was first at the training ground and the last to leave. He was in at 7 o'clock at night with us, as the more experienced ones, saying to him 'go home, you have been here all day!'
"You have to drag him off the training pitch, whether it is practicing his free kicks or building himself up in the gym. He had a total mindset change from that moment on and you could really see him going to another level. He had Villa on his back for a long period of time and now he is reaping the benefits of that."
Boy becomes a man
Villa always had high hopes for Grealish, but a hot prospect needed game time in order to unlock his full potential and a stint in League One with Notts County back in 2013-14 allowed a man famed for being the most-fouled player around to toughen up and master the art of taking a few bumps and bruises.
Hutton went on to say of a player that rarely gets rattled by the treatment he receives: "Probably going out on loan to Notts County when he was young helped, experiencing that man's football, getting battered about the pitch. He got a lot of rough treatment in training as well off all the experienced lads because he was gliding by people, taking shots and getting kicked. He just got up and got on with it. I think he has carried that on into games.
"He doesn't get annoyed with anyone, he gets kicked up and down the pitch but just gets on with it. He knows that he can draw fouls, get people booked and they are on thin ice and have to be careful - that helps him do what he has to do in games. Those experiences when he was younger definitely helped to mould him into the player he is and to be able to deal with all the kicks."
Big-money move
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Grealish took in 213 appearances as a senior star for Villa, but is now opening a new chapter in his career as part of a star-studded squad in Manchester, with considerable faith and funds invested in him.
Is he worth £100m or have Villa done great business? Hutton said: "I think it's both. There are always going to be people out there that are going to be saying 'that's a silly amount of money for anybody', but he's only 25 and he's going to get better.
"It's no disrespect to Villa or Dean Smith, they have done amazingly well to get him to where he's at, but moving on to play with world-class players is going to make him a better player. I think he's worth it. I think what he's done recently is be better when it comes to assists and goals - those numbers will only go up this season with the players he is playing with. We are going to see an improved Jack Grealish moving forward, he's going to get better under Pep."
Fitting in
Getting to the top is one thing, but staying there is quite another and Grealish is set to face the kind of competition for places at City that he was unaccustomed to at his boyhood club - with Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez battling for spots on the flanks, while Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan fill creative midfield berths.
Quizzed on whether Grealish's best position will be out wide or in a central number 10 post, Hutton added: "It's an interesting one. For me personally, he's on the left. He does his best work on the left, whether it be driving at people, creating space for others, making assists, coming inside on his right foot.
"Of course he can play number 10, but they have a lot of options there. He could play as an eight in midfield, but overall I would have him on the left. I think that is where you get the best out of him. City have got a lot of options, they do rotate a lot and that is something he might have to get used to - not playing every single game, which at Villa is exactly what happened. It's down to him to prove to everybody what he is capable of in his best position."
Grealish has made a habit of proving people wrong over the course of his career to date, so the expectation should be that he will deliver value for money at City while taking his game and reputation to even greater heights.
This interview was in association with Coffee Friend, an international retailer for coffee and coffee machines.
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