The midfielder sacrificed his style of play to suit Pep Guardiola, but got nothing in return and the time has come for him to move on
Manchester City fans will bid farewell to Kevin De Bruyne on Tuesday in their final home game of the season against Bournemouth, but while all the focus will rightly be on the brilliant Belgian playmaker after his 10 years of service, he is unlikely to be the only player to depart the Etihad Stadium this season. A squad overhaul has been long overdue, and Saturday's shock FA Cup final loss to Crystal Palace underlined the need for more renewal in Pep Guardiola's side after they splashed the cash in the January transfer window.
Bernardo Silva is one of the players who is likely to follow De Bruyne out of the door, and the Portuguese set the scene for his departure and that of others in a forthright post-match interview at Wembley when he said: "It's been a really, really bad season for us. Something has to change next year. I have my opinion, but I'm not going to give it to you. It's for the big bosses to decide. But definitely, something needs to change when you don't perform at this level."
Ilkay Gundogan and Ederson are other strong candidates to leave after falling below their previous levels this year, but one player needs to leave first and foremost: Jack Grealish has long ceased to be useful for Guardiola, but he doesn't just need to leave City in the club's interests – he needs to leave for his own sake, so that he can salvage what is left of his career.
Getty Falling further down the order
Grealish has had a dismal season, but the one thing that had kept him motivated was the FA Cup. He had played in all of City's games in their run to the showpiece event, starting four out of five games and playing key roles against admittedly lower-league opposition in Salford City and Leyton Orient. He had previously stated that he was "devastated" to not start in the quarter-final tie at Bournemouth, although he did come off the bench to sew the comeback victory up. So one can only imagine what it felt like to not get on at all at Wembley.
Grealish has gotten used to seeing Savinho or Jeremy Doku picked ahead of him, and on Saturday both of them started at his expense. But as the minutes ticked by and City's need to score became ever more urgent, Guardiola threw on more attackers, only to continue ignoring his most expensive signing. The coach instead turned to Phil Foden andGundogan ahead of the England international, but most insulting for Grealish would have been the sight of 19-year-old Claudio Echeverri, who had never even been on the bench for City before, getting the nod over him.
As it turned out, Echeverri almost found and equaliser and Guardiola had no regrets at all about bringing on the Argentine. But what must Grealish have thought?
AdvertisementGetty 'His time is up'
For England legend Alan Shearer, the snub should be the final straw for Grealish's City career. "His time is up at Man City, he has to leave," Shearer told podcast. "For him (Guardiola) to bring a debutant on, a young boy, and Gundogan on when they're desperate for a goal rather than Jack Grealish… His time is up, he's done at Man City, he has to leave. For whatever reason, Pep's done with him, he doesn't like him. His time is up, it really is."
Grealish would already have been well aware of how his stock has fallen at City. He has started only seven Premier League games all season, playing a total of 715 minutes. That is his lowest amount of league minutes since 2013-14, when he was 18 years old and just breaking into the Aston Villa team.
He has not been able to make the most of his little time on the pitch, either this season or last, having scored just four league goals and provided two assists in the last two campaigns. Grealish has been vocal about the fact that he does not need goals or assists to play well, and it is true that he was a crucial part of City's treble-winning team only two years ago despite only contributing to 13 goals that season. But it feels like he has sacrificed his entire game to please Guardiola, and it has all been for nothing.
Getty Images SportSacrificing his game for nothing
"I feel as though Jack's played within himself," said Grealish's former Villa team-mate and close friend Micah Richards, who also felt the winger had "played it too safe" under Guardiola. He added: "If he'd gone there and been losing the ball because he'd tried to take people on, making the wrong pass or whatever… But I don't feel like we've seen the real Jack Grealish."
Guardiola and Grealish always felt like a strange collaboration as the winger looked like the ultimate individual player when he was at Villa. It took Grealish more than a year to bed into Guardiola's system and understand the Catalan's way of working, but it all paid off as Grealish helped City finally win the Champions League and complete the treble. His role in the celebrations remains the stuff of legend, his "hang it in the Louvre" social media post and "feed the turkey" antics as memorable as Rodri's decisive strike in the final against Inter.
But his reward for adapting his game to suit his coach was to see Doku brought in that summer, with the Belgian given a licence to cause havoc down the wing and terrorise defenders in a way that Grealish was never allowed to. Savinho and the returning Gundogan, meanwhile, brought more competition for Grealish this season.
AFPPep rarely changes his mind
Guardiola has argued that Grealish has simply not been up to the challenge. He brutally said Savinho was in "better shape" than Grealish in January, adding: "He has to compete with himself. I want the Jack that won the treble. But I try to be honest with myself for that. But you have to prove, [to say] 'I'm going to fight with Savinho, to deserve to play in that position'. And every single day, and every single week and every single month."
In February, he repeated his stance: "I'm so sorry he doesn't get the minutes that maybe he deserves. But [in] the end, the contributions from Jeremy or Savinho have been massive this season, this is the only reason why. It's not personal, or [that] I don't like Jack, or I don't have confidence in him."
But the thing about Guardiola is he doesn't usually change his mind and give players much of a chance to change the narrative. Just look at his treatment of Joao Cancelo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Kalvin Phillips. It could be argued that Guardiola has given Grealish more chances than he gave the others; he held stern talks with the player last summer in private and had even promised "Jack will be back" in public. But Grealish's revival never came, and it's time for both parties to cut their losses.
