Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy is set to test crisis club Aston Villa’s insistence they will not sell Jack Grealish for under £40 million by making a bid for the midfielder.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino has identified Grealish as a prime summer target and Spurs want to move quickly to take advantage of Villa’s money problems. The Championship club will have to cash in on Grealish this summer after failure to win promotion to the Premier League left them in a financial mess.

Levy will believe he can get Grealish for as little as £15m, despite Villa’s attempts to stress they will not sell their prized asset on the cheap. That could make negotiations strained, but Levy will know that Villa are not in a strong position to stick to their guns having only just staved off the immediate threat of administration by settling their bill with HMRC.

Pochettino has been hugely successful developing young talent and thinks he can groom Grealish’s talent in the same way he has with Dele Alli.

Grealish is close friends with Dele and, although he is a boyhood Villa fan, the 22 year-old is likely to find the prospect of joining Tottenham and working under Pochettino appealing.