**Pep Guardiola**spoke about the headline grabbing performances of a marquee man turned loanee.
Jack Grealish got a £100 million move from his boyhood club Aston Villa in the summer of 2021 to sign for Man City. He picked up three consecutive Premier League titles and also won the treble in 2023, helping the Citizens to conquer the Champions League for the first time and complete the project of domination. But it came at the growing cost of his maverick sparkle on the pitch.
The attacker went over a year without a goal for the club and by the end of the 2024/25 season, he had fallen out of favour with Guardiola. The Spaniard saw him as surplus to requirements, despite the exit of **Kevin de Bruyne**and poor form of Phil Foden, and was willing to let him go on loan to Everton.
City’s loss has been the massive gain of the Toffees. Grealish has found the love of the Merseyside faithful and David Moyes as the missing piece, getting four assists against **Brighton**and **Wolves**in August, causing nightmares at **Anfield**for Liverpool, and grabbing a winner against Crystal Palace.
The mid-table maverick is running back the clock, but he will not face his parent club on the weekend due to the regulations around loan players. Guardiola is happy to observe his form from a distance.
“Obviously he is there. The impact has been massive from day one. He got minutes and minutes and this is what he wanted. The decision we had with him, because he’s a lovely guy, but he’s back to real business and he’s playing every game.
“They’re the rules. When I will be a CEO or president of a big institution in England maybe I will change it. If he played it would be nice but I don’t have any opinion.”