Jack Grealish must accept tough new reality to not waste Man City chance

The wind at Selhurst Park was so ferocious on a sunny April afternoon that it was sending Jack Grealish's hair left, right and backwards but that wasn't going to stop him making his point.

Having just played an important role in an important Premier League win for Manchester City, the £100m star made his first appearance of the season with reporters to give his side of an underwhelming season. There was annoyance at the obsession with goals and assists as the key metrics for performance in his position, frustration at the injuries that hadn't helped his rhythm, acceptance that despite that he still hadn't been good enough as he struggled to motivate himself after the Treble, and determination that everyone would see the best of him in the final part of the campaign.

It was exactly what anyone would have wanted from Grealish, especially because when he had been on the pitch at Palace, or Copenhagen, or Luton, it appeared clear that City were a better team with him in it. A City fan who appreciates what Grealish adds to the side messaged recently to point out that he has only lost once in his last 50 league starts: 'tactics or lucky mascot?' they asked.

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The problem is that what followed on from Palace suggested that City's tactics worked better without him central to the plan. He started four of the next six games to be fair, including both legs of the Champions League quarter with Real Madrid and the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.

However, even with decent performances City looked better when he was replaced by Jeremy Doku against Madrid and Chelsea, or Erling Haaland at Forest. Of the last five games, he played just 16 minutes as Doku, Mateo Kovacic and others made better cases for inclusion.

That is why, as questionable as it may be for Gareth Southgate to leave Grealish out of the England squad for the summer, there can be no doubt that his season with City was poor. And when you zoom out further, that makes two poor seasons out of three.

Such a record is not great investment for the club's most expensive player, particularly when that club prides itself on getting value for money in the transfer market. Grealish was exceptional at the start of 2023 for several months to power the team to the Treble, but in a squad of winners where you have to prove yourself every week he is in danger of being left behind.

Pep Guardiola has done plenty behind the scenes over the last 12 months to try to get Grealish back to his best and is still backing him to do so next season. There aren't many clubs that could come in and seriously challenge the idea that the former Villa man will be at the Etihad next season.

But from the moment he returns for pre-season - an earlier date than expected now given his England cut - the emphasis and onus is on Grealish to show why he was the player that City broke their transfer policy for, smashing their record fee by more than £30m in order to meet his release clause. Why, as Haaland joked when he arrived, City paid twice as much as they did for the Norwegian.

Grealish can of course do nothing about his fee, yet it does frame the lens through which his move from Villa is viewed. Three good seasons out of five is far better value than one in three, but to get there Grealish needs to get back to where he was in those months before the Treble.

There is skin in the game for Guardiola and sporting director Txiki Begiristain too. Having pushed so hard to sign him, judgment on Grealish is judgment on them as well.

"When I saw him on TV, I said this guy controls the tempo I love when he has the ball he stops before the dribble and the opponent stops as well," Guardiola said when City signed him in 2021. “He controls the tempo when he accelerates and decelerates. Especially when I saw him when we played Aston Villa, the physicality, the mentality.

“I liked many things we saw, that’s why we tried, especially Txiki, Txiki was completely in love with him so that’s why we decided to try."

Even if England have decided they do not need what he brings, all the elements are there that make him perfect for Guardiola. But Grealish needs now more than ever to seize the City mentality of not letting anyone or anything else be used as an excuse for poor performance. From now on he needs to prove people wrong because people have moved on from the Treble and are now talking about a player not good enough to make Gareth Southgate's 26-man squad.

Grealish was candid on that day in South London, talking of how watching the Treble documentary had made him emotional thinking about how long he has left at the highest level. The answer, and everything that comes with it, comes down to him.

Only the player can have responsibility for whether his career is spoken of in terms of how much he fulfilled his talent.