Jack Grealish's Struggles: From Star Player to Forgotten Talent

Three years ago in Istanbul, Jack Grealish started the biggest match in Manchester City’s history while Phil Foden, Julián Álvarez and Riyad Mahrez watched from the bench. Pep Guardiola trusted him that night against Inter and left him on for all 90 minutes of a Champions League final. Grealish was central, symbolic, indispensable.

Now he is fighting not to be forgotten.

The decline has not been sudden, but it has been relentless. Injuries chipped away at Guardiola’s faith and the numbers tell the story with brutal clarity: just 17 Premier League starts across the next two seasons. From £100m statement signing to rotational option. From mainstay to makeweight.

City were ready to move him on in the summer of 2025. Everton stepped in, first as a lifeline, then as a repeat solution, taking him on loan again this season. It was supposed to be a fresh chapter. Six appearances into the current campaign, he was nowhere to be seen in the squad for Thursday’s Carabao Cup win over Newcastle after missing training on Monday. Everton did not hide behind vague language. There had been, they said, “a breach of club discipline”.

For a 31-year-old with 39 England caps, this is not a subplot. This is the story.

Grealish should be a senior pro by now, a standard-setter. Instead, his career file is thick with off-field missteps: breaking lockdown rules, a driving ban, and multiple viral nights out that have shaped a version of him he never intended to project. The incidents blur into each other, yet the pattern is clear. Learning from mistakes is supposed to be part of growing older. His indiscipline has refused to age with him.

Guardiola saw it coming and tried to slam on the brakes. In 2021, he dropped Grealish for a match against Newcastle after he and Foden reported for training in no fit state to impress. The warning was public, pointed and, in the long term, not nearly enough.

Grealish has never pretended to be something he is not. He has spoken openly about his weaknesses, which is at least an honest starting point. “People go: ‘He likes to go out, he likes to party,’ and I do,” he told Sky Sports last year. “I want to be able to live my life and enjoy myself but obviously there’s a time and a place to do that. Sometimes, I’ll be honest with you, I probably haven’t picked the right times.”

Everton initially looked like the reset button he needed. Early on, he threatened to become the face of a new era. There were winners against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth before last Christmas, the sort of decisive moments that justify big reputations and big wages. By mid-January, before a foot injury cut his season short, he had six assists in 20 Premier League games. Not spectacular, but productive. Enough to suggest there was still a player there.

Even then, the inconsistency nagged. Grealish has not played more than 28 league matches in a season since 2019-20 at Aston Villa. For someone of his talent, that statistic should sting. Availability is a skill. He has not mastered it.

Everton had doubts about bringing him back this summer. Those reservations did not vanish; they were overruled. Iliman Ndiaye’s sale to City opened a hole in their squad and Grealish, already on the books, offered a convenient plug. At City, Enzo Maresca had given him a clean slate in pre-season, minutes in the Community Shield and a start on the opening day against Bournemouth. There was a faint murmur of a redemption arc.

It did not last. Whatever hopes Maresca had of rebuilding him at the Etihad faded quickly. The Italian still spoke warmly on Friday. “I still think that he’s a good boy, big heart,” he said, a line that felt as much like a farewell blessing as an endorsement.

The frustration is that the talent has never been in doubt. At his best, Grealish is pure theatre. Socks rolled down, ball glued to his left foot, he drifts and darts, drawing defenders into fouls they know they should not commit but cannot avoid. He makes chances, he takes them, he lifts a stadium with a single shimmy. Those surges, though, have become rare enough to feel like nostalgia rather than habit.

The next seven months will define what comes next. Grealish is at an age where he could still operate at the top level for several seasons. Instead, his status is shrinking. He is a treble winner, a £100m signing, yet those labels increasingly belong to a different version of him, a different career. The medals are in the cabinet. The question is what he does from here.

His City contract runs out at the end of the season. The incentive could not be clearer: perform now, show he can still light up Premier League games, drag Everton towards the cup success their supporters crave, and doors will open. Right now, his future feels suspended in mid-air.

David Moyes did little to disguise his irritation on Thursday. The Everton manager was terse when asked about Grealish and gave no hint he would push to keep him beyond this loan. It is not just about one breach of discipline. Moyes is operating with a thin squad, counting on every senior player. Losing one through avoidable behaviour is not just unhelpful; it is infuriating.

Away from the pitch, the picture is softer. In a sport that increasingly pushes players behind velvet ropes, Grealish remains unusually open. He lingers for autographs when others have long since disappeared down the tunnel. He embraces the charity duties that come with elite clubs. Around Hill Dickinson Stadium, he is mobbed on arrival and departure, and he leans into it, posing for selfies, sharing jokes, giving out the small moments of attention that mean everything to supporters.

He pours plenty of energy into making others feel good. The challenge now is to direct some of that care inwards, to find the discipline and self-awareness that his career has lacked at crucial points.

“With me, I’m a big confidence player – I want to feel loved,” he once said. For the first time in a long time, that affection will not be handed to him on reputation alone. At Everton, and in the eyes of Moyes, he will have to earn it or watch the game move on without him.