Aston Villa have a rich history of producing players from their academy side who have then gone on to be a success in the first-team set-up.

Jack Grealish is, arguably, the best example of this as the winger was a terrific player for the Villans for many years before being sold to Manchester City for a then-British record transfer fee of £100m.

Jacob Ramsey has broken through into the first team in recent seasons and established himself as a regular in central midfield. The 21-year-old has scored eight goals in 89 senior outings for the club but is not an out-and-out attacker as his main position is in the heart of the midfield.

Whereas, Grealish is a natural attacker and was consistently influential at the top end of the pitch for Villa - scoring 14 goals and providing 18 assists in his final two Premier League campaigns for the side combined.

Unai Emery could now unearth the club's next version of the England international by unleashing Jacob Ramsey's brother Aaron in the 2023/24 campaign.

How has Aaron Ramsey performed this season?

The 20-year-old has spent this season on loan with Norwich and, now, Middlesbrough in the Championship and has developed throughout the year.

In the second tier, the dynamo has averaged an impressive Sofascore rating of 6.98 across 23 appearances and racked up six goals and three assists to date, with three of those goals coming in his last two outings for Boro since making the switch to Teeside in January.

WhoScored's Martin Laurence, interestingly, pointed out this week that Ramsey has now equalled Grealish's best goalscoring season at that level with his six strikes, with ten regular season matches still to play.

The magician was also recently lauded by his current head coach, Michael Carrick, who said:

"AJ was brilliant. He's a selfless player. He makes selfless runs for those around him, he's intelligent, he sacrifices himself and understands what others around him are good at."

Ramsey, who scored 15 goals and provided eight assists in 30 U21 outings for Villa, is an attacking midfielder by trade and can also play out wide - like Grealish.

The maestro could make the step-up to the first team, based on his terrific displays in the Championship at such a young age, and become a consistent threat in the final third for the Villans as an attacker and follow in the footsteps of the now-Manchester City gem.

However, it is down to Emery to offer him the chance to impress and then it would be up to the player to adapt to top-flight football and consistently deliver impressive displays on the pitch.