Jack Grealish was right to dismiss transfer talks with Tottenham in the past, according to former Aston Villa and England striker Stan Collymore.
Grealish rejected Tottenham's £25million bid in the summer of 2018 and instead helped Villa return to the top-flight after signing a five-year contract with the club.
Collymore believes the decision allowed Grealish to become a 'serious player' that is now ready to join any 'elite club'.
Collymore told The Mirror: 'He made the right decision not moving when Spurs wanted him. He'd have just been in their squad at that point.
'Since then Jack has taken a step up and is a serious player.
'Well done for not taking that move, helping get Villa into the top flight, but he can play for any elite club now.'
Grealish has more recently been linked with a move to Manchester United, after impressing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with his performances at Villa Park.
However, the 25-year-old once again proved his loyalty to the club by signing a contract extension that will now commit him to his boyhood club until 2025.
As for Manchester United, Collymore has expressed his anger at the club's decision to back the controversial 'Project Big Picture' proposal.
He said: 'The Premier League's elite clubs, led by Liverpool and Manchester United, are using the global pandemic to seize control of football.
'You've got an economic slowdown, folk losing their jobs and clubs banned from letting fans into their grounds, and football's top dogs have decided to make their move.
'They are offering incentives to the lower reaches, to install themselves as the unopposed rulers of the game, cementing a status as the unopposed aristocracy.
'I find it is insulting, insensitive and it makes a mockery of a semblance of solidarity from top to bottom.
'I am disgusted that they think they can get all the power and the vetoes to run the Premier League, by bunging the desperate club's below some much-needed cash. Anger can't express what I feel.'