Jack Grealish has signed on loan for Everton for the 2025/26 Premier League campaign from Manchester City
Jack Grealish during a Manchester City game
Jack Grealish has signed for Everton(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Jack Grealish's arrival at Everton marks the beginning of a new chapter for the England international. Whether it goes beyond the initial season-long loan into a more permanent affair from Manchester City remains to be seen.
Grealish, 29, arrives at Hill Dickinson Stadium in need of reinvigorating a career that has stalled in recent times, with the attacking midfielder finding himself on the periphery of City boss Pep Guardiola’s plans last season after struggling for form and little signs of being any more than a bit-part player in 2025/26.
With Grealish wanting to force his way into Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup plans for next summer in North America, Grealish needed to play. However, with him earning a reported annual salary of £15m per year, allied with the significant chunk of money it would take to clear his remaining book value at Manchester City, the only real option was a loan move.
The Premier League is the world’s most elite domestic league and top flight clubs, save for a handful around Europe and Saudi Pro League sides, are the only ones who can really take part in a market where wage demands are so high and City were seeking to make big wage savings on Grealish.
Last season was a challenge for Grealish and while it may be felt that he hasn’t quite lived up to the £100m price tag that was paid by City to Aston Villa back in 2021, he has contributed to the club winning three Premier League titles, a Champions League crown, two FA Cups, a UEFA Super Cup and a FIFA Club World Cup across a stint that has seen him feature 157 times across all competitions, netting 17 goals.
Grealish inked a six-year contract with City back in 2021, his £100m fee amortised over those six years before amortisation was capped at five years by the Premier League and UEFA, working out at £16.7m per year not including his reported £15m per year in wages.
Of that £100m figure, his book value remains at £33.4m on the club’s balance sheet. The market was flat around a permanent deal for the former Villa man.
The deal sees Grealish head to Merseyside, but multiple reports also highlighted a non-mandatory first refusal clause for Everton to buy Grealish for £50m. But how likely is it that the Toffees, or anyone for that matter, are willing to spend that money on a player who will be 31 in September next year is unclear, even if he does have a good season at Hill Dickinson Stadium for David Moyes.
The Everton switch makes sense for City. It saves his wages sitting on the payroll for 12 months and gives Grealish a shop window to play football, even potentially shining to the point where Everton wish to make the agreement a permanent one.
He needs to play to protect some of his value, particularly if he is to have only one year remaining on his contract come next summer. With that in mind, it feels like the reports of £50m being the fee should Everton wish to buy next summer may be exaggerated given he will be almost 31 in 12 months. The market for players at that age whose form has waned is not at that price point and only a select group of clubs in England could engage, or those from the Saudi Arabian Pro League.
If Grealish does well at Everton it is far more likely that that City would seek to move him on for what is left on his book value plus a small accounting profit, say £10m, which would make a £25-30m sum seem far more realistic, especially as it clears book value for a year and saves the remainder of his wages. If they sold at £25m they would have made around £9m in profit and saved £30m in wages for the remaining two years of his contract, which wouldn’t represent bad value given he contributed to City success during his time at the club.
The £50m figure mooted is likely to provide a point for negotiation, and to keep a potential fee high should suitors from the Saudi Pro League be willing to pay that kind of money. They weren’t this summer, but whether that stance changes in 12 months remains to be seen. The likelihood is that the £50m is nowhere near what City would realistically be expecting to recoup when they come to sell him permanently next summer, which they surely will after a season spent playing regular Premier League football.
Everton see the Grealish deal as a risk worth taking, with it only really being the wage burden. They see themselves landing a top player who is impactful at Premier League level and him carrying just 12 months worth of risk, a risk they are now in a better financial position to absorb under the ownership of The Friedkin Group.
City will want him to shine on Merseyside as it will enable them to have a far more buoyant market for his services next summer, something that just wasn’t there this time around to make a permanent exit from the Etihad Stadium possible.
It gives him a place to play week in, week out at the elite level, for a side who won’t be one of City’s title challengers this season. With no obligation to buy at £50m, if Grealish does well, Everton will feel no obligation to pay anywhere close to that to make it a permanent deal if the loan spell goes as hoped.