Jack Grealish
Jack Grealish
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For the second successive summer, Jack Grealish finds himself at a career crossroads, but will he stick or twist? Right now, he’s doing his best impression of Burtonwood services or IKEA in respect to being caught in that no man’s land somewhere in between Merseyside and Manchester.
The 2026/27 season might see him back in the royal blue of Everton again, but there is now a suggestion that he could be handed a second chance at Manchester City and don their lighter hue once more. A report in the Mirror by chief sports writer Jeremy Cross states that incoming City boss Enzo Maresca, who is expected to replace Pep Guardiola after he quit the Etihad Stadium following a decade in charge, wants to hand a lifeline to outcast Grealish and plans to hold talks with him about reviving his career at the club.
Despite becoming the first £100million English footballer when he moved from home city club Aston Villa, where he’d been since the age of six, when he joined Manchester City in 2021 and being an integral part of their treble winning side of 2023 that lifted the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League, Grealish found himself surplus to requirements when he was left out of the squad for the FIFA Club World Cup by Pep Guardiola in June last year.
Around the same time, just days after they had won 1-0 in their final game of the 2024/25 Premier League season at Newcastle United, Everton were installed as bookmakers' favourites to land the Brummie ace. The charm offensive to make Grealish the marquee signing for the historic first season at Hill Dickinson Stadium then began through both official an unofficial channels.
Ex-captain and lifelong Blue Alan Stubbs was on the case from the start and in a piece published on June 12, he told the ECHO: “If you look at him in a number 10 role, what he can bring compared to what we’ve already got, it’s a significant upgrade. I think Jack Grealish needs loving again, I think he needs to go to a club where the fans are going to adore him, and that would certainly be the case at Everton.
“I believe that Jack needs to feel loved in terms of playing, week in, week out, and if he does that, I think we could see the best of him.”
The Kirkby-born former centre-back, who as a manager steered Hibernian to their first Scottish Cup in 114 years in 2016, then did his wooing face-to-face following a chance encounter with Grealish when the pair of them were both holidaying in Spain. Stubbs told talkSPORT: “To be honest, I had a night out with Jack in the summer over in Marbella.
“I tried my best to get him to Everton. I was telling him how much he’d be loved. He’d be an idol at Everton, the fans would really take to him.”
Before Grealish had his ‘pep talk’ (perhaps that’s an unfortunate turn of phrase) with Stubbs though, the ECHO understands that having been told by Guardiola that he should find a new team, the player was taken out to dinner by David Moyes and was impressed with how the Glaswegian gaffer, who prior to his big move in 2021 had described him as: “probably the best player in the league right now,” explained the way he intended to get the best out of his talents if a deal could be struck.
As always, the Blues boss kept a dignified silence for the lion’s share of his time in the USA for the Premier League Summer Series where he had sent out a powerful message that the team needed “nine or 10 new players” before the start of the season. But while he remained tight-lipped on the record, especially when it came to Grealish in particular, a breakthrough seemed to be on the way towards the end of the trip as, after games in New York and Chicago, the team made it to Atlanta and there was a distinct shift in his tone.
Although the confirmation of the England international’s season-long loan deal was embargoed until 4:30pm on Tuesday, August 12, photographs of the player posing in an Everton shirt showed the clock in the gym at the club’s Finch Farm training complex displayed the time 22:08, proving it must have been done on the previous day at least and highlighting how choreographed agreements over these announcements are.
On completing his move, Grealish said: “As soon as I spoke to the manager, I knew there was only one place that I wanted to go.
“On social media, I’ve been flooded with messages from Everton supporters, so there’s that side of it as well and that’s another reason why I chose Everton.”
He made his debut as a 71st-minute substitute in a 1-0 defeat at newly promoted Leeds United a week later, but soon started having a major impact on the team. Grealish received the first Premier League Player of the Month award of his career in the week of his 30th birthday after providing four assists in his first two starts and he then followed that up with Hill Dickinson Stadium’s first stoppage-time winner in the 2-1 comeback victory over Crystal Palace and Everton’s first Premier League success over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
Following the latter success, he remarked: “I love the manager to pieces,” adding, “I have scored two goals now this season, one was a tackle and one was a deflection, but I got hammered for years for not scoring so I am taking both of the goals.”
Grealish’s comments had his gaffer on the back foot with the Blues boss admitting: “I don’t know if I like that because players used to not like me.”
Indeed, behind the scenes, Moyes knew he had to keep some of his squad, including Grealish, on a tight leash because of their extracurricular activities. Given the player’s high profile, certain publications were not shy at highlighting some of his socialising throughout the season, both before and after the injury that curtailed his campaign.
After helping Everton to arguably their best result of the season, a 1-0 triumph on January 18 back at Aston Villa, who had won their previous 11 home games, it was revealed that Grealish had suffered a major injury setback and he has subsequently undergone surgery for a stress fracture in his left foot. There is, of course, another side to his personality, one which is famously warm and considerate, especially to children, but despite the ECHO conducting post-match interviews after every fixture this season with a Blues player, Grealish was never offered up and the same went for previews or other opportunities to speak.
We did promote his humanitarian side, though, when publishing quotes he gave to the BBC after inviting Special Olympics athletes who completed the London Marathon to Hill Dickinson Stadium through his role as principal ambassador of Special Olympics Great Britain. Grealish said: “I can’t thank Everton enough for the way they’ve been with me since I’ve been injured – they’ve been brilliant. From the staff, to the players, to the manager.”
Having purchased a box at Hill Dickinson Stadium for his family in a multiyear deal – in the East Stand rather than the West where the other players’ ones are, because there weren’t any others left by the time signed – Grealish’s love affair with the Blues seemed to be continuing last Thursday night when video footage of him at Everton’s end of season awards black tie event showed him enjoying himself with friends while leading the singing of: “One more year Jackie Grealish, playing football the Everton way.”
Speaking in his pre-match press conference to preview the final game of the campaign at Tottenham Hotspur, Moyes fired a pre-emptive strike at Sky Sports’ Vinny O’Connor when he remarked: “We’ve not got an answer for you if you’re going to throw me a Jack Grealish question in a minute or two as well,” but also admitted: “Obviously we like Jack a lot.”
While Belgium international Jeremy Doku – 24 today – is now very much first choice on the left wing at Manchester City – it’s not like Grealish has severed his ties at the Etihad Stadium either. When City played at Hill Dickinson Stadium earlier this month, Mateo Kovacic was photographed among those queuing up to embrace him.
Grealish’s young daughter sported an Everton kit with ‘Daddy 18’ on the back of the shirt during the end-of-season lap of appreciation following the Sunderland game. However, on Monday evening, he took part in Manchester City’s ‘After Party’ at the Co-Op Live by the Etihad Stadium that served as a farewell to Guardiola once the parade through the streets with the FA Cup and Carabao Cup was complete.
Perhaps Grealish just wanted to make sure Pep really was on his way, but he was all smiles when taking part in a ceremony that had him holding aloft the UEFA Super Cup City had won in 2023, before posing with pals Rodri, holding the European Cup, and Erling Haaland with the Premier League trophy (presumably all replicas, I’m not sure if Mikel Arteta’s debt of gratitude to his former boss extended to Arsenal relinquishing that one so soon).
The ECHO understands that there is an appetite from Grealish and Everton alike for him to return to Hill Dickinson Stadium next season, but the deal has to be right for both parties. City were quoting £50million for him last summer and as much as his football intelligence improves the Blues’ play and they’ve missed him in the second half of the campaign, they will not be smashing their transfer record for a player coming off the back of a serious injury who turns 31 in September.
One more year? Perhaps, but Evertonians and those making the decisions at the top will have to wait and see.