Jack Grealish has not started a Premier League game since December and has been told to find a new club if he wants to be part of England’s 2026 World Cup squad in the USA.
Jack Grealish has been told to leave Manchester City this summer if he wants to play for England at next year’s World Cup.
Grealish, undroppable when City won the Treble in 2023, has become an outcast under Pep Guardiola and has not started a Premier League game since December. The £100million winger has lost his England place and former City star Didi Hamann has urged the 29-year-old to find a new club this summer if he is serious about making Thomas Tuchel’s squad for the 2026 tournament in the USA.
“I think his situation at City will probably depend on what the manager does,” said Hamann. “I think if Guardiola were to depart, there might be a chance he’d stay. If the manager stays, I think he most certainly will go.
“Even if he doesn’t stay, he’s been at the club for so long and as you say, he’s won everything. He had spells where he showed what he can do.
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“If you ask me now over the four or five years he’s been there, whether he’s been a success, I’d say no, because there’s just too many and too long periods where he hardly featured, didn’t feature or didn’t really affect the game as much as he should have.
“I think he needs a change of scenery and also, looking ahead to the World Cup, if he wants to go to the World Cup in 2026, you only get so many chances as a player.
“To do that, and I’m sure Thomas Tuchel would have told him, he probably has to go somewhere else and play regular first team football.”
Although Guardiola has two more years on his City contract at the end of this season, Hamann said he could see the 54-year-old waking away this summer after all the difficulties he has been through this term.
“When he signed the contract extension, I think that the contract was signed to calm things down and just bring a bit of stability into the club, because it was really needed at the time because of the 115 charges that the Premier League brought against City,” said Hamann.
“You know, he’s been there a long time. The people in charge of the club are the same people that were running Barcelona when he was there, so they’re not only colleagues, they’re friends, and I’m sure if he wants to go, they would find a solution.
“The challenge for City is that next season, they kind of have to create a new team and I think in modern history, for example, when Sir Alex Ferguson won the Champions League in 1999 and then winning it again with a different team in 2008, he was the last manager to do that.
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“That kind of rebuild requires a lot of patience and a lot of energy. When I look at Pep this season, I’m not sure whether he’s got either at the moment.
“It’s a very testing job, being a Premier League manager. You have to transfer that fire from the manager to the players and make them believe they can win everything again. I’m not sure he can do that. I said that a few months ago.
“I’m not sure how far that time is where he say to himself, maybe somebody else is better equipped for the job. I’d be surprised if he’s still the manager next season, regardless of where they finish.”
Didi Hamann was speaking to Best Betting Sites. The full interview can be found here.
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