Jack Grealish’s anger at his England snub is understandable – but he shouldn’t be shocked

What people love about Jack Grealish is his authenticity. Even as England’s first £100 million footballer, a serial winner at Manchester City and a Gucci ambassador, he remains unmistakably himself: Jack the Lad, a lovable rascal with a cheeky smile and a heart of gold.

It’s a step backwards. Down to earth and spontaneous. In a world of stone-faced athletes whose native language is innocuous, here is a multi-talented, multi-millionaire footballer who doesn’t take himself too seriously.

On the finest night of his career last May, after Manchester City won the Champions League final in Istanbul, he freely admitted that his performance against Inter Milan had been “horrible”. “But I don’t care,” he said, wiping away his tears. “This is what I’ve worked for my whole life.”

Self-deprecation has been a recurring theme since that record transfer from Aston Villa in August 2021.

He said he played “crap” in his first season at City. He contributed far more significantly to the hat-trick in year two (despite a (horrible) night in Istanbul), but he admitted a struggle for form again in year three, even if it ended last month with a third in a row. Premier League winner’s medal.

Grealish was last night described as being “shocked” and “devastated” to be left out of England’s Euro 2024 squad by Gareth Southgate.

The “devastated” part is understandable. But “shocked”? A player more self-aware than most surely can’t be totally shocked when, by his own admission, he struggled to stay fit for months while Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon, Eberechi Eze and others have made giant strides. .

Grealish has won 35 caps since breaking into the England squad in 2020, but Southgate has never seemed truly convinced by him. Only 15 of those 35 appearances were starts and, although the public and media sometimes clamored for his selection, there were few occasions where he grabbed an opportunity with both hands. His only international goals were the fifth in a 5-0 win over Andorra and the sixth in a 6-2 win over Iran at the 2022 World Cup.

At times, Grealish’s omission from the starting lineup has become a stick with which to beat Southgate. This added to the perception of him as a cautious middle manager wearing a Marks & Spencer waistcoat. This is one of the great themes of the 1970s England team in particular: free-spirited, shaggy-haired players like Frank Worthington, Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Alan Hudson and Charlie George were adored by the fans but were wary of the English managers. who preferred straight lines and straight laces, all short backs and sides and the 4-4-2.

At times, notably during Euro 2020, Grealish wondered if his reputation – the Jack the Lad label, a few stupid episodes in his private life – counted against him in Southgate’s eyes.

A few years ago, there was a well-documented vacation as part of a group of players who called themselves “The Avengers”, including James Maddison, Ben Chilwell and Dele Alli. All four struggled to find a place in Southgate’s plans and, although Dele’s struggles were of a more serious and long-term nature, he was undoubtedly noted in the group chat ‘The Avengers” that Chilwell had been left out of the preliminary team. before Maddison and then, even more dramatically, Grealish failed to make the final cut this time.

“The Avengers” avenged? Some might see it that way. But it’s a question of form. Chilwell has had an interrupted season at Chelsea, hampered by knee and hamstring injuries. Maddison, after making an excellent start at Tottenham Hotspur, struggled to return to his performance levels following his return from an ankle injury in January. Grealish suffered a dead leg and a groin problem and never really got going at City.

Pep Guardiola has publicly stated on several occasions that Grealish needs to improve his game. There have been oblique comments regarding the player’s fitness and attitude in training. As of mid-January, Grealish has started just eight of City’s last 22 matches in all competitions. Nine times he came into play as a substitute. On no less than nine occasions he was an unused substitute. In their last three games, including the FA Cup final against Manchester United, he did not appear for a minute.

There have been times in the recent past when the talent pool available to English managers was so small that big-name players from big clubs were almost guaranteed to start regardless of their form at club level. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case – at least not in the attacking areas, where Southgate suddenly found himself with a wealth of options.

Before the 2018 World Cup, Southgate’s first tournament as manager, only four England players had scored more than 10 goals in the Premier League that season (Kane, Jamie Vardy, Raheem Sterling and Brighton & Hove veteran Albion Glenn Murray). This season? Palmer 22, Foden 19, Dominic Solanke 19, Ollie Watkins 19, Jarrod Bowen 16, Saka 16, Eze 11, Gordon 11 – and that’s before we get to Harry Kane (36 Bundesliga goals for Bayern Munich) and Jude Bellingham (19 goals). for Real Madrid in La Liga).

As Southgate said on Thursday night, the selection bar has been raised considerably by the emergence of so many bright young attacking players.

At Euro 2020, played a year later due to Covid-19, Southgate’s options in wide attacking areas were Mason Mount, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Sterling, Foden and Saka.

Foden and Saka have improved enormously since then, but Sancho, Sterling and Mount were left out of the squad some time ago following prolonged dips in form at club level, and Rashford has also failed to make the grade. part of the preliminary team for this tournament. Grealish has three Premier League goals (in consecutive games in December) and one assist this season and, while his game has always had more to it than can be measured in the most basic production numbers, few which suggest he has been better out of possession than, say, Saka, Bowen, Gordon or Eze.

Grealish looked more lively in a half-hour appearance against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday night than he had in weeks. Perhaps that’s what Southgate had in mind when he later suggested that some players had given him something positive to reflect on.

One wonders if, against a compact defence, Grealish’s ability with the ball in wide positions could mean he could still be an attractive option off the bench for Germany’s Southgate. But he no longer engages defenders like before.

In 2020-21, at Villa, he made 2.67 successful take-ons per 90 minutes in the Premier League. This figure dropped to 1.88 in his first year at City, adapting to a different role in a different team, increased slightly to 1.97 in the second year and fell back to 1.61 in the third year. You don’t have to be Jeremy Doku (4.92 per 90 minutes), but Eze (3.03), Palmer (1.79) and Gordon (1.65) all scored higher in which is commonly considered to be Grealish’s strong point.

It is perhaps also significant that these young players have arrived with a freshness and liveliness that has been lacking in Grealish’s game of late. While Southgate can be characterized as someone who favors the tried and tested over the exciting and new, the England manager has repeatedly shown his desire to have new, young talent on the fringes of his squad . If a player is third or fourth at his position, it makes sense that he would join the team with great enthusiasm rather than the weariness of someone who fears spending a tournament fighting on game day.

But Grealish cannot afford to view this as an isolated setback, let alone something personal on Southgate’s part. It was widely felt that, for all the qualities he had shown at Villa, he would need to improve his game considerably if he was to establish himself as a leading player in a team that aspired to dominate English and European football under Guardiola.

Did he do this? Some would say the answer lies in his collection of winners’ medals (three Premier Leagues, one FA Cup, one Champions League, one European Super Cup, one Club World Cup). But he only started 55 Premier League games during that period. He considers the first and third of those seasons largely forgettable and, while the end of the 2022-23 campaign saw marked improvement and significant contributions, it pales in comparison to the influence that, e.g. , Guardiola got from Foden this season. .

Foden has just turned 24 and is going from strength to strength. Grealish turns 29 in September and, looking at his career as a whole, it’s fair to describe his talent as one that has shone intermittently without ever really dazzling. He has often looked like one who could be happiest and most productive as a talismanic player in an average team, as was the case at Villa, rather than as a supporting cast member in a team with higher aspirations.

At times he has been praised for adding certain qualities to his game – notably the break, as Guardiola calls it – but something of the free-spirited, swaggering Grealish of his late Villa period has been lost. His numbers are declining. It sometimes seems that his mood is also the same. “I just think sometimes if you’re not playing and probably not up to par in training, in your head you just don’t feel confident,” he told reporters in April, reflecting on a difficult year.

At the heart of it all, perhaps, is something he spoke about earlier in the season while on England duty. “I’m not saying it’s hard to be motivated; you can’t say that,” he replied when asked if he struggled to find motivation after last season’s treble. “But when you do it, it’s is a bit like, ‘Now what?'”

Again, it comes back to that everyone appeal. Few gamers these days would dare admit such a thought. But Grealish sees it and says it like it is. Endearingly honest, fallible and authentic, sometimes to excess.

(Top photo: MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)