Everton have signed Jack Grealish on loan from Manchester City and the attacker must now prove his value with the Toffees if he hopes to challenge for a place in England’s squad
The numbers don’t look great for Jack Grealish’s time at Manchester City.
The trophy count definitely does. Three Premier League titles, a Champions League, FA Cup, Club World Cup and a UEFA Super Cup. That’s a record anyone should be proud of. Especially as three of them were won in one season, which was probably Grealish’s standout year for City.
But the figures which don’t balance are the individual ones compared to the cost. They come because City spent £100m on Grealish. That’s a huge figure and not his fault.
While he has also been paid £300,000-a-week for four years. So the sum to them has been £162m. The return? Just over £1m per match played, £9.5m a goal and £7m per assist.
The eye test doesn’t look great either. Apart from the Treble-winning season (and it’s harsh to say given the extraordinary success), Grealish has looked far from the magical player who wowed at Aston Villa.
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He seemed to play in a straight jacket under Pep Guardiola, suffocated by tactical roles which are so key to City’s brilliance. But last season, when he featured for just 1,521 minutes across all competitions, he looked to be totally cut adrift.
Grealish, now 29, was no longer wanted and that was clear when he was left off the Club World Cup trip this summer. Yet there is still hope the maverick England player can rekindle his brilliance at Everton under the tutelage of David Moyes.
This is not an ordinary signing by the Scot from his previous time on Merseyside when he would look for unknown gems rather than damaged ones.
Although he did try once or twice. Remember Royston Drenthe? But Moyes has evolved as a manager as the game has changed, too. He will hope what is a gamble on Grealish pays off at Everton.
“A fully-fit, focused Jack Grealish is a very, very good player and will be an asset to most teams,” former England striker Alan Shearer told Betfair.
“He’s going to be working with a great manager in David Moyes, going into a new ground with great expectations, new hope for Everton because they’ve signed a few players.
“He’s got a chance to get his career back on track and it’s a great chance at a huge football club, in a new stadium with a very, very experienced manager. Let’s see what that brings.
“He needs to show the energy, hunger and desire that he showed at Aston Villa and when he went to Man City.”
The early signs are promising from Grealish at Everton, who will pay around £12m in wages for him across his season-long loan, for that hunger and desire Shearer is calling for.
It was the former Villa man who pushed for the move to be done quickly in the last few days as he wants to be ready to play for his new club next Monday when their season starts away at Leeds.
That is why it went from talks to signing in the space of hours. Grealish was working in Everton’s gym while the ink was still drying on the contracts. Moyes will need to keep Grealish focused on his football but he has to make him smile again by giving him the freedom on the pitch he had at Villa.
He was the talisman for his boyhood club but now he can be that for Everton this season with a World Cup next summer as further motivation to impress. It was in the Midlands where he became worth £100m but now it is on Merseyside where he must again prove his worth.
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