Manchester City this summer, having been left out of England’s squad for Euro 2024. His omission was a surprise — not least to Grealish himself, as well as the brand of mayonnaise that had made him the face of its summer advertising campaign — but Guardiola did his best to turn it into a positive.
“Sometimes you need something to ignite yourself to be better,” Guardiola said when asked about then-England manager Gareth Southgate’s decision. The hope is that if there’s an upside to Grealish missing out on the tournament in Germany, then it’s City who feel the benefit.
Grealish isn’t a stranger to suggestions he has something to prove. It was the same in 2019 as he prepared for his first season back in the Premier League with Aston Villa. He faced similar questions in 2021 as well, after City had spent £100 million to make him the most expensive British footballer ever; there were more doubts a year later, after a modest first season at the Etihad Stadium, about whether he could cut it under Guardiola.
Grealish has taken a proactive approach to the new season, using Juventus’ training facilities while on holiday in Italy to ensure he came back to City in the best shape possible. He also declined the offer of an extended break to return to the City Football Academy (CFA) headquarters early. On the club’s preseason tour of the U.S., he even spoke about “proving people wrong.”
Guardiola has been impressed, particularly with Grealish’s training efforts in America, and he would have started against Manchester United in the Community Shield and against Chelsea in City’s first Premier League game had it not been for an injury picked up a couple of days before the trip to Wembley.
“I’ve loved it,” said Guardiola when asked about Grealish’s summer. “It’s every session: his commitment and his trying, his aggression with the ball, that’s all. After that, his quality will do the rest. Hopefully he can sustain it until the end of the season.”
And there lies Grealish’s challenge. By his own admission, last season didn’t go as planned, largely because of a combination of nagging injuries and a loss of confidence. He played well in patches, particularly during extended runs in the team in December and April, but he also spent long spells on the fringes of Guardiola’s thinking. The City coach values consistency above anything else and once you’re out, it’s very difficult to swing the pendulum back.
Last month at Manchester’s Opera House, Phil Foden was named the PFA Players’ Player of the Year for 2023-24. But 12 months earlier, during City’s charge toward the treble, Foden missed a chunk of the season after surgery to remove his appendix in March and didn’t win back his place in time to start the finals of either the FA Cup or Champions League. Grealish was picked instead.
Also on stage at the Opera House that night was Cole Palmer. He collected his award for Young Player of the Year and in front of Guardiola, the England playmaker explained that part of his success came from a move to Chelsea that was motivated by a lack of playing time at City. The irony is that had Grealish not played so well during the treble year, Palmer might have had more opportunities at the Etihad and stayed put.
If that had happened, there would have been no blistering debut season for Palmer at Chelsea and, potentially, an extra space for Grealish at the Euros. If there’s a silver lining for Grealish, it’s that — as Foden and Palmer have shown — a year is a long time in football. Indeed, Grealish was back in the City team for last weekend’s 3-1 win over West Ham United, and has done enough to earn an England recall from interim manager Lee Carsley ahead of UEFA Nations League games against Republic of Ireland and Finland.
But he knows his chances of emulating Foden and Palmer as PFA award winners are slim. Foden won the top award after registering 19 goals and eight assists in the Premier League. Palmer’s return was 22 goals and 11 assists. Grealish, meanwhile, has never scored more than eight Premier League goals in a season — for Villa in 2019-20 — and it has become a frustration of his that often the quality of a performance is measured purely by numbers
