Jack Grealish is poised to link up with his "favourite ever player" at Manchester City after the Premier League champions made a £100 million offer for the Aston Villa skipper.
City earmarked the England star as a top transfer window and the Daily Mail say the club are expected to complete the deal, which will be the most expensive in Premier League history, next week.
Grealish is set to receive a healthy wage increase from his salary at Villa and will have the privilege of learning from Pep Guardiola if his boyhood club agree to let him go.
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But above all Grealish will no doubt be frothing over the prospect of linking up with City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, a player he utterly adores.
The 25-year-old has regularly waxed lyrical over the Belgian midfielder and is always in awe whenever he plays against him.
Speaking to Andy Townsend in an interview for Villa TV last year, Grealish said: "I'm half starstruck when I play against Kevin De Bruyne because he's my favourite player ever. I think he's unbelievable, I think he's easily the best player in the Premier League at the moment.
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"He's someone I personally look up to at the moment and try and, not base my game on him, but try and take stuff from his game and put that into mine."
Ahead of the 2020 Carabao Cup final, Grealish continued to share his love-in for De Bruyne when Sky Sports asked who his favourite City player is.
"De Bruyne. Easy. I love him," he replied.
"I think he's easily the best player in the Premier League for me. Apart from [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo, he's probably the best player in the world.
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"Everyone knows how good he is and he could walk into any team in the world."
Grealish also said he was going to try and get the former Chelsea man's shirt in the final at Wembley, highlighting how much of a 'KDB' fanboy he is.
But De Bruyne is also a big fan of Grealish and even spoke to his teammates about him.
"I rate him very highly," De Bruyne said ahead of Grealish's first competitive start for England in a defeat to Belgium last year.
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"He's somebody I mentioned before, talking to the teammates at City, in a random conversation.
"In England they talked about creative problems in midfield, but he brings that to a team. He deserves a shot."
Rather excitingly, Guardiola could now have the pair of them running the show in midfield in the upcoming season.
Topics: Manchester City, Aston Villa, Football, Jack Grealish, Premier League, England
