A potentially ambitious statement of intent from The Friedkin Group or a throwback to the costly days of profligacy that dogged Farhad Moshiri’s tenure – where do you sit when it comes to the ‘Jack Grealish to Everton’ rumours?
It’s a potentially huge transfer dilemma as, according to Betfred, Everton are now the joint favourites at 4/1 with newly crowned Italian champions Napoli to sign Grealish, ahead of Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur (5/1); Newcastle United (7/1) and the Brummie’s previous club, Aston Villa (10/1).
The first Englishman to move for a nine-figure fee, Grealish quit home city club Villa, where he’d been since the age of six, when he joined Manchester City for £100million on August 5, 2021, despite winning a hat-trick of Premier League titles with club, a Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup ‘treble’ in 2023, which was followed up by successes in the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup (starting in all four major finals the team played that year), the winger has fallen down the pecking order at the Etihad Stadium. Grealish, who was dropped by then England manager Gareth Southgate for last summer’s European Championships, made just seven Premier League starts for City in 2024/25 and the BBC reported this week he is expected to be left out of City’s squad for the FIFA Club World Cup taking place in the USA later this month.
City have agreed a €55m (£46.3m) deal with AC Milan for Netherlands midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, while they are also in talks to sign Olympique Lyonnais forward Rayan Cherki and Wolverhampton Wanderers left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri. Speaking about Grealish’s situation last month, manager Pep Guardiola said: “Of course, Jack has to play. He’s an unbelievable player that has to play football every three days.
“It didn’t happen this season and last season either. He needs to do it – with us or another place.
“It’s a question for Jack, his agent, and the club. If he stays it will be fine and he fought like he fought from day one to make a contribution.”
Reading between the lines, it seems like the Catalan gaffer is telling the Grealish camp that the ball is in their court if they want to give their client the amount of playing time he desires, given that is now unlikely to be at the Etihad Stadium. As Guardiola quite rightly eludes, Grealish is a special talent – City wouldn’t have shelled out the gargantuan fee they did if not – but four years on from them breaking the bank to prise him away from his boyhood team, does he really represent the value that David Moyes wants for an Everton rebuild?
While the Blues’ PSR problems could soon be behind them and several high earners have come off the books in recent years, could this kind of deal represent a slip back into old bad habits? An apologetic Moshiri admitted in an open letter to Evertonians in June 2022: “We have not always spent significant amounts of wisely,” in what proved to be a gross understatement as the FFP breaches galloped towards Goodison Park like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the shape of a brace of points deductions during the 2023/24 season, that would have sounded a relegation death knell had they been meted out in the previous campaign.
Grealish’s reputed £300,000-a-week wages will prove prohibitive with most potential suitors and Everton must be careful how they spend their money as they look to flex their financial muscles again for the first time in several years.
Given that he turns 30 on September 10, Grealish will soon be entering ‘veteran player’ status and while Moyes – now the Premier League’s elder statesman himself at 62 and with more matches under his belt in the competition than any other manager after Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger – appreciates experience at this level, you don’t want too many old hands in your side, especially in the final third of the pitch where energy and dynamism are key factors.
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Across the board you also want desire and while Grealish has always been a wholehearted performer, possessing the kind of dribbling skills that could potentially light games up for Blues fans at their new Mersey waterfront home, Moyes, who quickly dispensed of gifted but ageing luminaries such as Paul Gascoigne and David Ginola first time around, has often favoured hungry, young players who still have their best days ahead of them and can be developed into valuable assets.
For all the significant changes in personnel expected in what will be a busy summer, Everton are already well-stacked with options on Grealish’s preferred left wing.
The Blues have just made their first signing of the new era to acquire one of them, Carlos Alcaraz, who has turned his loan move into a permanent switch. There’s also Dwight McNeil, who since returning to fitness following a four-month lay-off, has sometimes been deployed in an inverted role on the right, and of course Everton’s most-explosive performer of their final season at Goodison Park, Iliman Ndiaye who netted the last two goals in men’s senior football at the Grand Old Lady, and whose artistry on the ball provide Moyes with his own version of Grealish that is five years younger.
