Jack Grealish's form in his final season at Aston Villa (left) earned him a £100million transfer to Manchester City but he now finds himself surplus to requirements at the Etihad Stadium (right)
Jack Grealish's form in his final season at Aston Villa (left) earned him a £100million transfer to Manchester City but he now finds himself surplus to requirements at the Etihad Stadium (right)
During his first spell as Everton manager, David Moyes compared trying to compete with Manchester City’s new-found wealth to “taking a knife to a gun fight.” Well, Sheikh Mansour’s fortune enabled City to make Jack Grealish England’s first nine-figure signing when they paid £100million for his services, so with Moyes back at Everton, could the Scot be about to swoop in among the shrapnel of one of their transfer misfires?
An article in the Daily Mail claims Everton are monitoring Grealish’s situation. The piece states: “Inside Sport understands that no talks have taken place between the two clubs, but that the Merseyside outfit is aware of Grealish’s availability.
“Any potential move would be likely to be in the shape of a loan deal, with the former Aston Villa man’s £300,000-a-week wages an issue with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules continuing to trigger headaches across the competition. However, bringing the England international to Bramley-Moore Dock would be seen as a serious statement of intent for the club’s new owners, the Friedkin Group.”
READ MORE: Full list of Everton ins and outs for summer transfer window as deal confirmed
Also included in the report are some quotes from Blues boss Moyes heaping praise on Grealish back in 2021. The Glaswegian said: “He is a really good player and probably the best player in the Premier League at this time.
“He has done such a big job at that club (Villa) and is probably the best player in the league right now.”
The trick for Moyes if Everton were to make their move for the out-of-favour star – the BBC reported last week that City boss Pep Guardiola is set to leave him out of his squad for the FIFA Club World Cup taking place in the USA later this month – would be to try and get him back to the kind of form the Brummie was producing for Villa, the club where he’d been since the age of six, that earned him his record-breaking move to the Etihad Stadium.
Using Comparisonator’s Me2Me tool, we can correlate Grealish’s statistics from 2024/25 season against those in 2020/21, his final campaign at Villa Park. Back then, the winger netted six Premier League goals (he’d grabbed eight the year before) but last term there was just one.
All of Grealish’s offensive parameters were higher almost across the board then with an increase on expected goals (xG), with 0.16 per 90 minutes to 0.14; playing in scoring attacks, 0.92 to 0.89; assists, 0.34 to 0.13; shots, 1.87 to 1.39, and shots on target, 0.76 to 0.51. What is perhaps most telling is how Grealish’s natural talents have seemingly been stifled by the heavy emphasis on passing in Pep Guardiola’s side as his dribbles per 90 minutes have dropped from 7.02 to 5.58 with successful dribbles down from 4.65 to 3.8.
Jack Grealish's offensive parameters for per 90 minutes for Manchester City in 2024/25 and Aston Villa in 2020/21
Jack Grealish's offensive parameters for per 90 minutes for Manchester City in 2024/25 and Aston Villa in 2020/21
City do pass more than Villa though, so this is reflected in his numbers. In 2024/25, Grealish averaged 44.11 passes per 90 minutes compared to 36.15 in his final season at Villa, with his successful passes up to 38.66 from 30.2.
However, Grealish was doing more off the ball with Villa too as his defensive parameters show with 5 ball recoveries compared to 3.04 and 1.79 interceptions rather than the 0.89 last term.
Even though his numbers are down, they’ve hardly fallen off a cliff so a lot of where the player, who turns 30 in September, finds himself right now could be down to perception, so if Moyes could get the twinkle-toed performer back to the levels that earned his £100million move in a royal blue jersey on the Mersey waterfront, then he would have an exciting player on his hands.
*Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.