Whatever next for Grealish, the answer is unlikely to be a reunion with his boyhood club
As Harry Kane and Bayern Munich welcome Jude Bellingham and Real Madrid to the Allianz Arena on Tuesday night, another Englishman back in Manchester may be wondering, “what if…?”
Chief headscratcher among them could well be Jack Grealish, who has endured a Hokey Cokey season in and out of Pep Guardiola’s side.
A return of three goals and three assists in 35 appearances for City this season raises the prospect of City welcoming offers for the winger this summer.
And whether Grealish stays or goes could well come down to Guardiola, who may find he no longer trusts a player he publicly berated on the pitch after the draw with Arsenal last month.
Guardiola brushed off the incident by sarcastically claiming it was to boost his own “ego”, but there is no denying it left Grealish looking deflated following a match where he was hardly to blame for the goalless draw.
“With me, I’m a big confidence player. I want to feel loved,” Grealish said last year, when pinpointing Guardiola’s belief as a reason for his upturn in form, so whether he still feels loved by his coach could prove a decisive factor as he approaches a crossroads in his career.
When looking at his options, there is no simple solution, but it is perhaps easier envisage Grealish thriving elsewhere than it is him becoming a year-on-year regular under Guardiola at City.
Those wishing to see the Grealish that dominated Aston Villa games have seen someone largely ground down by Guardiola’s methods since his £100m arrival in 2021, a role involving sacrifice for the team cause as opposed to one that allows his individual brilliance to blossom.
After all, Grealish was the go-to man at Villa, ranking joint-third in the entire Premier League for big chances created in his final season there in 2020-21 with 14.
In his three seasons since, he has created 20 big chances overall, placing joint-seventh, second and this season joint-10th among City players alone in this category – meaning he doesn’t trail solely Kevin De Bruyne in this regard.
That simply wouldn’t happen elsewhere given Grealish’s undoubted quality, but the difficult question is where is elsewhere?
A return to boyhood club Villa is the simplest what-next outcome, especially with the Midlands club close to delivering Champions League football to Villa Park next season.
However, it may not be possible financially, with Villa walking a financial tightrope this summer after posting £119.6m losses for 2022-23.
Grealish’s deal runs out in 2027, meaning he won’t go cheap, and so while a Villa reunion seems likely eventually, should he be looking to leave City soon then that prospect is slim.
Joining Kane at Bayern does not seem entirely far-fetched, with a club evidently in transition after relinquishing their Bundesliga grip perhaps open to fresh impetus in the transfer market this summer.
Bayern still need to appoint a head coach, for one, but find the right man and Grealish could follow suit, challenging Kingsley Coman for the privilege of feeding Kane from the left – a link-up that could prick the ears of Southgate or whoever manages England next.
Real Madrid would certainly feel overcrowded if Kylian Mbappe’s move is completed, but Paris Saint-Germain would therefore have an opening that Grealish can fill, a prospect that is entirely possible too given i reported PSG cooled their interest in Marcus Rashford on Monday.
Grealish otherwise, and while you get the sense it will be back to Villa one day, it does not feel as though it will be anytime soon.
Instead, he should spread his wings and sample the continent, where he would come back with tales for days, and perhaps – more pressingly – a fresh boost of confidence as well.
