Alan Shearer has suggested Jack Grealish needs to leave Man City this summer to revive his career after his FA Cup final snub, and an ex-Man United star has now backed the call
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Pep Guardiola and Jack Grealish
Jack Grealish has fallen out of favour under Pep Guardiola, and it's been claimed he could leave City
(Image: Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Alan Shearer has been backed in his call for Jack Grealish to leave Manchester City this summer.
The 29-year-old has fallen out of favour with Pep Guardiola this season, making only seven Premier League starts and was an unused substitute in Saturday's FA Cup final defeat to Crystal Palace. It has sparked speculation that the winger could be about to leave City, with Newcastle United legend Shearer suggesting the latest snub should be the final straw for Grealish.
"His time is up at Man City. He has to leave," he said on The Rest Is Football podcast. "For him [Guardiola] to bring on a debutant, a young boy [Claudio Echeverri], and Gundogan rather than Jack Grealish when they're desperate for a goal…his time is up.
"He's done at Man City, he has to leave. For whatever reason Pep is done with him, he doesn't like him. His time is up, it really is."
The England international signed for City for £100million four years ago and was a key part of the 2023 treble-winning team. However, Grealish has gradually dropped down the pecking order and has made just one Premier League start in 2025.
Discussions over the former Aston Villa man's future are due to take place at the end of the season. And ex-Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster has now agreed with Shearer's suggestion that he needs to leave in order to reignite his career.
Jack Grealish and Phil Foden of Manchester City
Jack Grealish has spent a lot of this season on the bench(Image: Visionhaus/Getty Images)
"He's not in a great place because he's not going to get in the England squad in the summer," Foster said on his Fozcast podcast. "He'll have a whole summer to go away, and he'll be thinking about this. I guarantee this would have hurt him and this would have left a big old dent on Jack Grealish.
"I don't know where he's going to go at the start of next season. I think he's going to struggle to find a team that is going to take on that responsibility and those wages and the demands that he's going to be expecting."
The former Wrexham shot-stopper added: "We need him to go and go away for the summer, get his head down, get a move to somewhere where he's the main man again and give us another four or five years of Jack Grealish being at his best."
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola has spoken out amid speculation over Grealish's future
Guardiola has claimed no decisions have yet been made on Grealish's future, with a conversation due to be held between outgoing director of football Txiki Begiristain, his successor Hugo Viana and the player's representatives. But he acknowledged that he will not be happy about his lack of minutes, with two years remaining on his contract.
Guardiola said: "We didn't talk, I didn't talk with him. People don't believe me, but these things belong to the agents and the club and Txiki, and in this case Hugo as well. Both will decide. What is going to happen will happen, but he has to come back to start to play minutes again.
"It’s not (only) Jack. There is not one player in my locker room, and I think all the locker rooms around the world, that is happy (when they) do not play. When the team is winning and winning they have to figure out how everything happens – but they are not happy.
"They are here to play and, when they don’t play, they are not satisfied. That is the normal position in all the clubs."
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