Jack Grealish’s future at Manchester City looks to be over four years after he became English football’s first £100m player. After a troubled two years for the talented winger, where next?
Could it be Everton? The Toffees have made an approach to Man City over a possible deal to sign Grealish. There is some conjecture about how advanced those talks are, with some suggestions that talks have not even started yet.
I think it is very clear this is still at a very early stage and the sense that we are getting, and from my colleague Vinny O’Connor who is up in the north west, is that if this does happen it may be much later in the window, when things have become a bit clearer for both clubs.
However, it is equally clear that their manager David Moyes is a huge admirer of Grealish and thinks he could do a really good job for Everton.
That probably means using him as a No 10 rather than as a left winger, because with Iliman Ndiaye and other options they have got on the left-hand side, Grealish would not naturally slot in in that position. So that is an interesting one.
There is another interesting issue and one which is going to be the key focus of these talks – his wages. He is one of the biggest earners at the Etihad. We are told he is on £300k a week, and it is pretty clear Everton cannot afford to pay all of that themselves. It would blow their wage structure out of the water.
I expect those negotiations to focus on the proportion of his salary which might be paid by Everton and by Man City.
It will be fascinating to see if any other clubs come in to make their own bid for Grealish at this stage, because I suspect there are an awful lot of Premier League clubs, especially if Manchester City are prepared to pay some of his wages, who would like to have him on loan for this season.
So how big of a move could this be for him? Because this is a player who will be fully aware there is a World Cup on the horizon next summer, and he has not been part of Thomas Tuchel’s plans as of yet. So this is vital to accelerate his career.
And as things stand, he is absolutely miles off even being considered for selection by Tuchel because he is just not playing enough games. And so I think he will want to move. He will be, of course, interested in which clubs come in for him.
Everybody has been talking about the fact that Jack Grealish needs to move on. Pep Guardiola has offered no guarantees he will remain at the club for this season, and he certainly has not offered him any guarantees about how many games he is going to play. And it is very, very obvious from all of what happened last season that he is not part of Man City’s plans.
He made just one Premier League start in 2024/25. He was an unused substitute in the FA Cup final. And that is a £100m club-record signing. So it makes sense from all parties if he moves on. Everton look like they may be the club who can offer him that opportunity.
We do not know yet whether he is interested in the move to Everton, but it is pretty clear that David Moyes and Everton have pretty ambitious plans right now. And if they can sell that vision to him then who knows, by the end of this transfer window, Jack Grealish may be pulling on an Everton shirt at their new stadium.
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