It is a sad state of affairs that Ireland fans will get to choose which of their lost young hopes they will miss more than the other, but Stephen Kelly believes Jack Grealish is a huge loss to the Republic.

Kelly was speaking to Nathan Murphy in the aftermath of Aston Villa's 3-2 home loss to Tottenham, but it was Grealish that caught the eye with yet another wonderful display.

"I have said from the get-go that we would miss Jack Grealish more than we will miss Declan Rice," said Kelly.

"That is not because Declan Rice isn't a good player, but Jack Grealish is an exceptional footballer.

"He is 100% going to go to a bigger club than Aston Villa. Aston Villa are a huge team in English football, but they are not where they need to be for his form to go forward."

Jack Grealish: destined for greatness?

Kelly talked of his own experience when training with Aston Villa, where he got a personal insight to the level that Grealish is capable of.

"He should be winning things. He is that good. I have trained with him for a long time at Villa, and he is just all round a very good player."

There have been marked improvements since Kelly trained with him at Villa in 2018.

"What has improved has been his mentality. He has got stronger with that.

"Off the pitch, he has got better at what he does with himself, and he comes out and puts in the performances.

"Every time he got the ball today, he did something good with it. He rarely gave the ball away, he was driving at the heart of the defence and we absolutely missed a trick for Ireland.

"What we would do to have someone like that in our team now. He will go on to play for an absolutely huge club, I have no doubt about that."

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