Like a man intent on proving he doesn’t need a turning circle, Pep Guardiola had completed a particularly lively display of pointing to his left when he executed a 90-degree turn to his right. Jack Grealish looked a little confused. Manchester City 0 Arsenal 0 It was the end and Guardiola had shown once again that he could not wait with the impatience of a perfectionist until he reached the shelter of the dressing room to explain his point.
Fortunately, perhaps few people can translate his melodramatic gestures in a way that understands the message he is trying to convey. Grealish may still be no wiser. Guardiola exaggerated his explanation for his antics. “I did it for the cameras, for my ego,” he said sarcastically. “I am the famous person of the team, that’s why. “I always try to criticize the players there and tell them how bad they are.”
Although Guardiola’s response was deliberately unilluminating, it was one of the enduring images of Grealish’s season; partly because there were so few others as City entered April. Although Grealish appeared to have scored the winner against Tottenham, Dejan Kulusevski subsequently scored an equaliser. Nearly eight months into the season, his meager three-goal tally all came in a two-week burst in December. His two assists came against the might of Sheffield United and Young Boys of Bern. He made seven league appearances.
All this isn’t a lot for £100 million. Arguably the highlight of Grealish’s season delayed his reunion with Aston Villa until Wednesday; This could be instrumental in his former club qualifying for the Champions League if they return to the European elite for the first time in more than four decades. Grealish foolishly missed the defeat at Villa Park in December: he was yellow carded for clearing the ball against Spurs. This was his fifth caution and, to underline the unnecessary indiscipline, he came on as a substitute in each of the matches he entered in the 87th, 80th, 75th, 59th and 52nd minutes respectively. Most of the time it was the wrong kind of coup substitution.
So Grealish could play no part in a match where City were decimated by injuries and suspensions and decided by a man in Leon Bailey, bought with proceeds from record sales. It’s not so simple to say that the unexpected arrival of Grealish propelled Villa to their current prominence: with Danny Ings of the three players he acquired on departure already gone and Emi Buendia missing the season through injury, only Bailey remained to contribute. But at a time when financial fair play rules apply, banking £100 million for a homegrown player has given Villa far more leeway than they could otherwise afford.
It may not make sense to say that Bailey, with 10 goals and 10 assists, is more determined and disruptive than the player he replaced. Grealish finished as City’s eighth top scorer, scoring just five goals in 51 appearances in the three-win season. Still, it was very important; He was an important part of Guardiola’s strongest side in a way that Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez were not.
However, if he starts against Villa it will be Grealish, but not as they know him. He’s still the same bubbly character; He is the man who danced on the table in the dressing room when City won against Arsenal last season, or who paid tribute to Julian Alvarez, who returned from Qatar as World Cup champions, but he is a different player. The free spirit can seem constrained in a tactical straitjacket. If this partly reflected a conflict at the heart of Guardiola’s management, a respect for individual talents but a desire to reprogram them and fit them into a system, it also suited the shape of City.
Grealish was the world’s most expensive lure last season; He expanded the play by standing on the left wing and made room for others inside. He can keep the ball (his 87.5 per cent pass completion rate is very high for anyone operating in the final third) and engage defenders, but then release the ball. He was not the maverick dribbler Villa remembered, not so much a cog in the wheel with a distinctive personality. He was Ibiza’s hedonist, but only on his days off.
But Grealish now feels he is at a crossroads. Although each brought silverware, he is on the verge of a second worst season at the Etihad in the third season (at least personally). His first season was defined in part by a late miss against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, combined with Rodrygo’s late brace, which saw City eliminated from the Champions League. He wasn’t in Guardiola’s best team.
The consensus now remains that Grealish is still in City’s strongest side; however, this is based on his tactical importance and ball possession capacity rather than his form. In February, Guardiola said the game plan remained the same, with the role open to Grealish. “That’s exactly how he performed,” he said, explaining his partial role. “This is the difference.” Then he added: “I hope he can perform well in the last three months.”
However, injury ruled him out of the first of these. Now, with Kevin De Bruyne in good form and Foden’s performances dictating that he should, there is a situation where the Mancunian must play on the left. The change in squad now that Mahrez and İlkay Gündoğan are gone means City can get more goals and assists from Grealish.
Instead they got less. While his reasoning for leaving his boyhood club was clear, he said in 2021: “I’ve always said how much I wanted to play football in the Champions League; I couldn’t do that at Villa this year.” without him they will be in Europe’s premier tournament. But it could be argued that it was indirectly because of him.