How Jack Grealish’s rollercoaster year of fatherhood, his shock Euros axeing and NO GOALS for Man City landed him in Pep Guardiola’s firing line

Crowned Premier League champion. Left out of England’s European Championship squad. Became a father for the first time. Lost his place in the Manchester City side. 

There are more than enough ups and downs in that 12-month period to impact anyone’s game, and yet that’s just a year in the life of Jack Grealish, once the darling of English football. 

Yet now, 18 months after his crowning glory at Manchester City, he appears to be at his lowest ebb at the Etihad. Pep Guardiola has said he knows that Grealish can get back to his best, but right now he is being played out of the team by summer arrival Savinho.

‘As much as (Grealish) looks at himself, he will see the competition,’ Guardiola said on Saturday. ‘He has to compete with himself. Savinho is in better shape and everything than Jack and that’s why I played Savinho.

‘I want the Jack that won the Treble. But I try to be honest with myself for that. What happened with Savinho’s delivery in the box? It’s higher than the other wingers in that position.

‘And they have to fight. You can say “OK, it’s unfair'” If you think that, then it’s fine. But you have to prove, “I’m going to fight with Savinho, to deserve to play in that position”. And every single day, and every single week and every single month.’

Grealish was left out of the England squad for the Euros and instead shared numerous snaps with his Instagram followers enjoying the sun on holiday 

The Man City star and his childhood sweetheart welcomed their baby daughter in September

Grealish’s emergence as a creative maverick at a struggling Aston Villa side, and his perceived ‘party boy’ antics as a youngster, drew comparisons to English football royalty like Paul Gascoigne, and for a long time it looked like he would live up to the expectations. 

‘I would love to be like Gazza,’ he said back in 2020. ‘He played with such joy and that is what I want to do. 

‘One of the biggest compliments for people to say to you is that you make them happy watching football.’

There aren’t many players in the current Three Lions crop with a better trophy haul – three Premier Leagues and a Champions League accompanied by another three titles for good measure – so he arguably already has realised that potential. 

Two seasons ago, when Man City at last topped the football world with a staggering Treble, Grealish was at the heart of it all, his connection with goal-devouring behemoth Erling Haaland crucial to his side’s universal dominance. 

He played almost 3500 minutes of football across 50 games that season, and was at his creative best as one of City’s key stars, playing 90 minutes in all but one of his side’s Champions League knockout games en route to the crown. 

He only managed five goals and seven assists all season, but for players like Grealish, who could turn a game on its head and who played with such an evident joy, it is never really about the numbers, but influence and impact, and other such intangibles. 

Yet that star in a sky blue shirt has struggled to shine quite so bright ever since, before a 2024 that will go on to shape his career, one way or another. 

Grealish broke onto the scene with Aston Villa as a creative maverick, drawing comparisons to Paul Gascoigne

He earned his way into the England set up and was part of the side that lost the Euro 2020 final 

He then joined City in the summer of 2021 for a British record fee of £100million from his boyhood club 

After sealing a Champions League-winning Treble in 2022-23 Grealish has struggled to replicate his best form

By the start of the year, Grealish had not played more than four league games in a row all season, with stability and consistency hard come by, and there aren’t many that can thrive in such circumstances anywhere in the game. 

Between New Year’s Day and March 30, he would play just 16 Premier League minutes as he battled a groin injury, and at a club like Manchester City, once your place becomes available, you’re battling against one of the top players in the world to get it back. 

The City squad at times is like a rainforest; where one sky-scraping monolith falls, there are countless others eagerly awaiting their chance at a spot in the canopy, and so begins a race for the limelight. 

It was around this time that the likes of Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Jarrod Bowen, Anthony Gordon and City team-mate Phil Foden were all flourishing at their own teams, all capable of playing in Grealish’s position. 

As such, when the time comes for Gareth Southgate to name his England squad for the Euros, it is Grealish who falls by the wayside, and really it’s hard to argue against it. 

Saka had become England’s finest winger, Palmer had stunned the Premier League with his emergence at Chelsea, Bowen scored 20 times for West Ham, Gordon’s electric pace and energy was unmatched, while Foden was named PFA Player’s Player of the Year and FWA Player of the Year. As competition goes, it doesn’t get a lot tougher. 

Meanwhile Grealish’s minutes were drying up, there was not a single goal in 2024 in a City shirt, and injury niggles were plaguing any form of progress. You start to see where Southgate was coming from. 

Having featured in 2021 as England made it to the final, including a spell-binding impact off the bench in the 2-0 defeat of Germany, Grealish admitted that it was the biggest setback he’d ever faced in football. 

The forward struggled for consistency at the start of 2024 and failed to get on the scoresheet

As a result he was axed by Gareth Southgate for his 2024 European Championship squad 

‘When you are on your holidays, every time you turn on the phone or the TV you just see it [the tournament], so it was hard not to see,’ he said in July of 2024.

‘I’ll be honest, football-wise it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with in terms of my own career.

‘I was absolutely heartbroken. For myself now moving forward, I have to just try and use that as motivation going into this season.’

‘I felt I should have been in the [England] squad,’ he added. ‘I feel like I offer something different to players in the England squad.

‘As I said, it was the hardest moment for me as a footballer. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career.’

True professional that he is, Grealish underwent grueling pre-season training following his England snub in a bid to come back stronger, posting pictures of himself going through the paces while on holiday.

But there’s not a lot he could have done about City signing one of the breakout stars of the year in Savinho, who had flourished at Girona, before impressing from the get go at the Etihad and forcing himself into Guardiola’s plans.

Left on the bench for an opening 2-0 win over Chelsea, Grealish then played in the next seven games as City made a strong start to the new 2024-25 campaign; not since his glittering 2022-23 campaign had he feature so many times on the bounce in the Premier League. 

City brought in Savinho over the summer to add further competition in wide attacking positions

Showing his determination not to rest for too long, he showed himself training at one of Juventus ‘ premises while in Italy 

But Jack clearly wanted to prove that he wasn’t putting his feet up for long, as he included several shots of him taking to the pitch once again in a bid to return to form next season

And in the middle of it all, Grealish became a father for the first time, experiencing what any parent will tell you is the greatest day of their lives. 

He and childhood sweetheart Sasha Attwood welcome daughter Mila Rose Grealish into the world  on September 27, 2024, in a moment that will change his life forever, and undoubtedly brings with it new challenges that he must face in his life, as well as enough joy to last the rest of his career, no matter what happens on the pitch.

He was still a feature on his return to the squad after leaving to be with his partner and their daughter, but only two of the next seven league games saw him play more than 16 minutes as his team-mates seized their own opportunities. 

His most recent outing, against West Ham at the weekend, saw him play just six minutes, before  

At the end of the day, Grealish retains the support of his manager, even with Guardiola being famously one of the toughest managers to please in the history of the game. 

If anything, his comments after Saturday’s victory speak to a manager willing to do whatever he can to help his player return to their best form, provided he sees the prerequisite effort in return, though there is nothing to suggest that is lacking. 

While he has failed to bring the same electric jolt of energy to games on a regular basis, Grealish can take solace in the fact that his performances are not actually that different to 2022-23, from a statistical standpoint. 

He is down on goals and expected goals, but he is up in attempted shots (1.8 vs 2.0), chances created (2.2 vs 3.4), pass accuracy (88 per cent vs 94 per cent) and cross success (18 per cent vs 19 per cent). 

Grealish and Sasha Attwood welcomed their first child into the world back in September 2024

Grealish will be hoping to show Thomas Tuchel what he is capable of to force his way back into the England side

Compared to what is regarded to his best season at City, he is actually only three per cent worse off for dribbling success and 0.1 for assists per 90 minutes in the Premier League. 

‘I don’t have any doubt about the quality of Jack or any of these players. They would not be here [otherwise],’ Guardiola said after the 4-1 win over West Ham. 

‘I know that he can do it because I saw him. I saw his level and I want that, every single training session and every single game.’

To suggest that the player’s City career is approaching its end would be reactionary and reductive in the utmost, especially given Guardiola’s comments of belief. 

All the same, though, it will be intriguing to see how this oh-so talented forward can battle back from a 2024 filled with setbacks to re-stake his claim as one of the first names on the teamsheet, for both Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel. 

Perhaps the best way back into the fold is to go back to what earned him that £100m price tag – playing with the freedom and joyous abandon that put so many smiles on so many faces.