Jack Grealish has moved one step closer to a move that would have been unthinkable 12 months ago: a season-long loan to middle-table, at best, Everton.
It would mark the end of a dismal two years at Manchester City for the 29-year-old, whose stock at the Etihad has fallen at such an alarming rate that the world’s top economists would struggle to find precedence.
There are examples in the world of football, especially with Pep Guardiola, who has never been passive when met with a character that does not yield to his omnipotence and authority as boss.
But given the crucial contribution Grealish made to City’s historic continental Treble in the 2022-23 campaign, his then-British record £100million fee and the affection he enjoys from almost all of his team-mates, the manner in which he has been cast aside has, at times, been shocking.
Of course, the winger bears responsibility in this. In Grealish’s maiden campaign he earned a respectable 22 starts in the Premier League while making 39 appearances in all competitions as City pipped Liverpool to the league title by a single point.
Counting stats – goals and assists – have never put the Birmingham native in particularly good light. He scored just six goals and assisted four for his team-mates, numbers dwarfed by the likes of Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling.
Jack Grealish has moved a step closer to leaving Manchester City this summer after a dismal past 24 months
The Englishman has spectacularly fallen out of favour at the Etihad under Pep Guardiola
But that summer brought change in Manchester. Confident that Grealish’s elite dribbling ability and knack for winning free-kicks would allow his team to exert even more control over the opposition, Guardiola put his faith in the winger and was handsomely rewarded.
Sterling and Gabriel Jesus were among the marquee talents that were allowed to depart as Guardiola set about achieving his ultimate aim of winning the Champions League.
Nine months after their August start, he not only had his third European Cup but another Premier League and FA Cup for good measure. Grealish was one of several key performers for the Citizens during the campaign.
Yes, future Ballon d’Or winner Rodri scored the winner in a tense 1-0 Champions League final win over Inter Milan and yes, new signing Erling Haaland broke a heap of records to power City to the league title but Grealish’s part in the piece cannot be overlooked.
That campaign saw the former Aston Villa man lap up the acclaim of pundits and fans alike, with many in agreement that he was performing at a level his astronomical fee demanded.
‘£100m player expectancy levels are huge, people demand the finished article immediately but you need a bedding in period and he’s had that now,’ former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand told BT Sport in 2023.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen him more confident than this. He’s receiving the ball and demanding it under pressure with end product now and he’s scored some big goals this season.
‘His importance to the team is dragging players to him and creating an overload elsewhere – him and Bernardo do that as well as anyone in this team’, he added.
Grealish was lauded for his performances during City’s historic Treble-winning 2022-23 campaign
Daily Mail Sport’s North West Sports Reporter Jack Gaughan wrote of the Englishman’s ‘undroppable’ status and lauded the winger for kick starting his City career after his tepid debut.
‘Guardiola barely ever drops him, something that has had a knock-on effect on Phil Foden,’ wrote Gaughan.
‘At the crux of his importance is that he never gives the ball away and it was Grealish who puffed his chest out when Arsenal were running over City on Wednesday night.’
After Grealish’s goal in that 3-1 February win over title rivals Arsenal, which took City top of the standings for the first time in four months, Guardiola said: ‘In these types of games you have to keep the ball, two or three touches.
‘We were not able to do it, just Jack. A little bit Riyad [Mahrez] but especially Jack.’
Praise of the like was plentiful during a whirlwind few months that saw City match the historic feat of their cross-town rivals. The subsequent celebrations were not just justified but almost demanded of a footballer, who had by that point, built a bond with the footballing public, especially in the UK, akin to Paul Gascoigne before him.
First fostered during his glittering displays in England’s run to the final of Euro 2020, those comparisons went into overdrive in the weeks following City’s European triumph in Istanbul.
‘Jack the lad’, ‘Super Jack’, ‘Thirsty Jack’ and a host of other more crude monikers were bestowed upon the winger as he took centre stage for the wild celebrations.
Grealish took centre stage for Manchester City’s wild celebrations after winning the Treble
The 29-year-old was often seen worse for wear and later admitted to be in a ‘world of pain’ after his initial three-day bender
Grealish was seen being propped up by Kyle Walker on his way to the airport in Ibiza, drenched in Haaland’s champagne and then slurring back at the Norwegian through half-closed eyes. He was also seen sufficiently composed to make a request: ‘I am a turkey and the turkey needs feeding.’ Then promptly opening his mouth for the addition of more vodka.
Former Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor admitted that he loved watching his fellow Brummie’s antics, stressing that after their successes ‘now it’s time to celebrate’.
But two years on, the question in most fans’ minds is whether the celebrating continued beyond its allotted time. And whether this period marked the beginning of the end.
The ‘world of pain’ Grealish admitted to being in after his three-day bender would unfortunately persist into the next season and beyond.
Injuries. The first one struck in the fourth match of the 2023-24 campaign and sidelined him for a couple of weeks, by which point new signing Jeremy Doku – a far more direct winger, who embodied Guardiola’s shifting wide preference – had firmly asserted himself as the starter on the left.
Groin issues struck him down later on in the campaign and contributed to him starting just 10 top-flight matches that season. In February of that season, after being forced off before half-time in an FA Cup clash against Luton, Grealish was visibly distraught and had to be consoled by his team-mates.
‘Looks like it [a recurrence of the groin injury],’ Guardiola said after the game. ‘It’s the second time. Hopefully this time he can recover well.’
Grealish would start just six more matches in all competitions that season, notably, the Cup final was not one of them. Most notable of all was that he would start none of England’s Euro 2024 matches, well, because he was not selected for the squad.
A visibly distraught Grealish had to be consoled by his Manchester City team-mates after his injury setback
Man City’s players, including Erling Haaland, partied until 5am after winning the Premier League title just days before
Five months after City’s shock defeat by United, Guardiola suggested that his troops were ‘a little bit hungover’. It was an unfortunate, but perhaps pointed, choice of word from the Spaniard given that Grealish and Haaland had led the celebrations after the side clinched a record fourth-straight league title in 2023-24.
City’s stars celebrated until 5am at Greek restaurant Fenix, as players took along their wives and girlfriends for a boozy night.
Grealish and Haaland struck a pose early in the night as they showed off their watches, with a Premier League medal dripping from the striker’s neck.
The party started in the dressing room, where players danced and sung: ‘Campeones, campeones, ole, ole, ole!’
And it seemed Guardiola acknowledged that the title celebrations went a little too far, maybe even as far as costing them another trophy.
Those would be the opening act to a remarkable series of unwanted headlines for the Englishman in the past 10 months.
In January, the City boss blasted Grealish for his poor form – he had started just four Premier League games up to that point, registering just one assist.
‘As much as (Grealish) looks at himself, he will see the competition,’ Guardiola said. ‘He has to compete with himself. Savinho is in better shape and everything than Jack and that’s why I played Savinho.
The England star spent the evening at the North Biddick Social Club near Sunderland
£100million man Grealish has been known to enjoy City’s successes to the maximum
‘I want the Jack that won the Treble. But I try to be honest with myself for that.’
In February came headlines of an apparent outing with a mystery blonde woman, particularly unwanted given that his girlfriend Sasha Atwood had recently given birth to their first child.
Grealish had been spotted out with the woman later revealed to be former model Emma Silverton and his friend friend Jaydon Gibbs, just one day after City’s 3-2 defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League.
He was seen leaving Chiltern Firehouse in Marylebone accompanied by Silverton, however he was then heard shouting: ‘She’s not with me!’.
Grealish then doubled back into the venue before returning shortly after, alone, and exited in a chauffeur driven car just after midnight.
In March, he was spotted at a pub in Gorton, Newecastle, an outing England boss Thomas Tuchel described as ‘not ideal’.
Another month and yet more reports of less-than advisable extra curricular activities, given his struggles to make it into the City team. In April, footage obtained by The Sun showed the 29-year-old, wearing a white t-shirt underneath a blue jacket and at the head of a small circular table, leaping to his feet.
He then stretched out both his arms, resembling the iconic stance performed by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort in the 2013 blockbuster the Wolf of Wall Street.
Onlookers told The Sun how Grealish was the ‘life and soul of the party’ at Bagatelle, a glitzy location in Mayfair donned a ‘clubstaurant’ by British GQ.
Grealish became adored by the masses when he was starring for his boyhood club Aston Villa
David Moyes is likely to give the Englishman more freedom to express himself than he has had at City
He reportedly racked up a £5,000 bar bill while partying at a swanky club in London the day after he was given a three-minute cameo in City’s win over Crystal Palace.
In May, he was the last to leave the celebrations as Kevin De Bruyne threw a stylish night out for his team-mates and their loved ones as he prepared to bid farewell to his adopted home.
Leaving the venue at around 1.35am, decked out in ripped jeans, Grealish was reportedly forced to squeeze his way past a drunk member of staff on his way out.
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Earlier this year, Grealish admitted that 2024 was ‘the most difficult year’ of his life and unfortunately the majority of 2025, from the outside at least, does not appear to have been much better.
But his imminent move to Everton has the possibility of changing all of that. Grealish became adored by the masses when he was starring for his boyhood club Villa, first in the Championship and then in the top flight.
It’s there than fans fell in love with his mazy dribbling, low socks, slicked-back hair and cheeky smile. The similarities to the Toffees’ side he could be walking into are abundant.
He’ll be a big fish in a small pond once more, and on the evidence of the superb displays of Iliman Ndiaye on Merseyside, David Moyes will give him the freedom to express himself in attack.
Grealish’s fall may have been stark but with the added motivation of the World Cup at the end of the season, his redemption could be just as storied.