Tim Sherwood says he urged Tottenham to sign Manchester City midfielder Jack Grealish when 16 years of age.

The winger, then with Aston Villa, impressed Sherwood to the extent that he reported straight back to then manager Harry Redknapp to insist he sign the young prodigy in a swap deal for first-team midfielder Jermaine Jenas.

But Sherwood told talkSPORT he could not persuade his boss to get the deal done.

He said: "I remember going back to the first-team game at White Hart Lane and Redknapp said, "Well what was the score?" and I said, "I don't know H, all I was doing was watching this boy Grealish", it was incredible.

"I said, '[Villa] want to take Jermaine Jenas, we should do a swap for this boy'. Harry, quite rightly, said, 'He's only 16, by the time he's in the first-team I'll be gone'.

"As a football manager he's absolutely right, looking after yourself as you would do.

"But for the club it would've been a great move. It would've been a great move for Jermaine as he ended up going to Villa [on loan] anyway."

When asked if Villa would have agreed to let Grealish go for Jenas, Sherwood added: "Yeah. Absolutely. There was more need for Jermaine in their team than there was for a young Jack Grealish.

"That's when you can nick players, when someone's desperate, if you want a swap now. For the here and now they would've taken Jermaine Jenas to try and stay in the league as they were trying to survive for many, many years."