Jack Grealish of Manchester City
Jack Grealish of Manchester City(Image: Visionhaus/Getty Images)
When Jack Grealish arrived at Manchester City in 2021 it was a watershed moment in the English game, with his £100m move from Aston Villa a British record at the time.
With such a price tag came much expectation, and while Grealish has shown the best version of himself for periods, he has not been able to deliver it on a regular basis and has found himself on the periphery of Pep Guardiola’s plans at City, with a move having looked increasingly likely with each passing season.
This summer looks set to be the window when the 29-year-old England international does move to pastures new, with a number of clubs already lining up to make a move, with the likes of Newcastle United, Everton and Napoli all in the mix according to multiple reports.
Grealish leaving will form part of the plan for Guardiola when it comes to reinvesting funds this summer to try and improve the squad to regain the Premier League title that they lost to Liverpool this past season. With some high-profile departures and gaps to fill, City will want to recoup what they can to put it back to work in different areas.
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Grealish inked a six-year deal with City back in 2021. This was done before the Premier League and UEFA closed the door to amortising transfer fees over a longer period than five years, meaning Grealish’s £100m fee is spread over six years for accounting purposes, and that works out at £16.7m in the accounts for the club.
His deal runs to the summer of 2027 and five years of his book value have been cleared, meaning that there is £33.4m remaining of his book value that would have to be cleared before City realised any profit on him, although his departure for a sum around that would at least reduce amortisation costs per annum that could be put to work with incomings.
Grealish’s lack of game time at City and subsequent falling away from the England setup have impacted his value, even though he has two years remaining on his deal, which is usually enough to uphold value to a relatively strong degree.
Transfermarkt pegs Grealish’s value at around €28m (£23.6m). That would be a loss to take for City of close on £10m should that be all that they could glean on the market. Such a loss would be seen on the balance sheet as an impairment charge, where the sale of a player is made at a loss against their book value.
There has been some noise in recent days around a potential willingness of City to listen to loan offers, and that may be a way for them to claw back some of what they feel they would lose with a sale this summer.
A loan fee would almost certainly be paid, which is often between £5m and £10m, with the acquiring club picking up the players' wages, or a portion of, with Grealish reportedly on around £300,000 per week. It seems unlikely that someone would be willing to meet all of that wage requirement given the pool of clubs in the mix, but a ratio of 75% might be achievable, which would save £225,000 on the wage bill per week for City, a total of £11.7m for the year.
Add to that a loan fee and that would be a £17m or so figure, and it would also provide the boost to value that City cannot give him, which is game time. That would mean that his valuation could hold up in 12 months and have a potential willing buyer already in play, and with the security of Grealish still having 12 months.
Given his lack of value strength in the current market, and the lack of clubs that would be willing to meet his £300,000 per week demands, a loan deal would satisfy some of the needs that City have while alighting themselves of Grealish off the books, with the potential for him to accrete value away from the club and give them a better chance of avoiding a loss when they do come to sell the player permanently.
Finding the right place for him to land to achieve that would be the biggest challenge for City, though, although his availability will have piqued the interest of plenty.