Jack Grealish Pays Price for Season of Stasis with England Omission

The manager’s exclusion of the wide man makes Grealish the biggest casualty for form reasons as England head for Germany next week. (Photo by Reuters)
The manager’s exclusion of the wide man makes Grealish the biggest casualty for form reasons as England head for Germany next week. (Photo by Reuters)
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Jack Grealish Pays Price for Season of Stasis with England Omission

The manager’s exclusion of the wide man makes Grealish the biggest casualty for form reasons as England head for Germany next week. (Photo by Reuters)
The manager’s exclusion of the wide man makes Grealish the biggest casualty for form reasons as England head for Germany next week. (Photo by Reuters)

Jack Grealish: from vital and colourful member of Manchester City’s treble winners to being dropped a year later for England’s tilt at Euro 2024 glory is a sobering trajectory for a footballer whose bubbly personality and talent for making mugs of defenders give him an X-factor Gareth Southgate may regret leaving behind.

The manager’s exclusion of the wide man makes Grealish the biggest casualty for form reasons as England head for Germany next week. Harry Maguire has been a mainstay of the Southgate era but the Manchester United defender misses out owing to a persistent calf injury.

Grealish, though, can and should feel unlucky because the manager’s cull of him from the initial 33-man party can, too, be traced back to reasons of physical infirmity during a campaign with City that was ruptured by a serious dead leg then a groin problem. This limited Grealish to 10 Premier League starts and 10 substitute appearances, with three goals and one assist.

In a disappointing end to his season he featured as an unused substitute in City’s last three matches, including the 3-1 win over West Ham on the final day of the league campaign that sealed the historic fourth consecutive championship, and the 2-1 FA Cup final defeat by United. This pushed Pep Guardiola into a defence of Grealish after the Wembley disappointment in which his manager stated: “He’s struggled this season. Jack will be back at the level of last season – I’m pretty sure.”

On Monday against Bosnia and Herzegovina he seemed to be, a near half-hour cameo from the bench showing an ability to turn it on when required, in an audition for a place in Southgate’s final squad graced by the precisely flighted ball that dropped sweetly on to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s toes for England’s volleyed second in the 3-0 victory at St James’ Park.

At 28, too, Grealish is streetwise, at his peak, has four years’ experience of working under Southgate, and during the last Euros the Birmingham-born player proved he can be a game-changer when really required. After entering in the 69th-minute of England’s last-16 game against Germany with the score goalless, Grealish launched two of his familiar lissome-legged runs down the left. They came on 75 and 86 minutes and were each followed by a cross that enabled first Raheem Sterling then Harry Kane to score, as Germany were dispatched.

Covid meant the tournament was played in summer 2021 and though Grealish was an unused substitute in the penalty shootout defeat by Italy in the final in July, a month later he became English domestic football’s most expensive player when he transferred from Aston Villa to City for £100m.

Now came the evolution from the unfettered maverick who had been his boyhood team’s captain and totem to hard-edged footballer whose first term at the champions was a fight to learn the spatial demands and differing attacking and defensive rhythms of Guardiola’s City, as 22 Premier League starts were made and three goals and three assists contributed.

In the following season the Catalan’s side became immortal by claiming the title, Champions League and FA Cup, and Grealish was a key member of the XI. Here Southgate benefited too, as Guardiola completed his remodelling of Grealish, who blended menacing wing-play with discipline and adhered to the rigid positional play demanded by the master-coach while having the licence, still, to launch driving runs from his left-sided berth.

There was only one more league start, plus two more goals and four more assists, but Guardiola now trusted Grealish in the games that mattered. He started both legs of the 5-1 aggregate Champions League semi-final win over Real Madrid, the 2-1 Cup final victory over United, and the 1-0 Champions League final win over Internazionale that sealed the treble.

After the eight-inch hematoma that caused his dead leg in September, Grealish was chosen by Guardiola in the XI that beat Urawa Red Diamonds 3-0 in the Fifa Club World Cup semi-final and defeated Fluminense 4-0 in the final. But, still, his difficult season continued and it finishes, now, in the searing disappointment of Southgate’s rejection.

With his curtains-style hairdo, warm Brummie brogue and liking for a beer, as his post-treble celebrations illustrated, Grealish is a throwback to a more off-the-cuff era when football was populated by many more Jack-the-lads who made it to the very top thanks to sublime talent. Now, though, when England kick off their Euro 2024 challenge on 16 June against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen, he is forced to watch from a sofa or sun lounger.

But, after the injuries and a season of stasis, the chance to recharge properly may prove a blessing in the long term.

The Guardian Sport



Mohamed Salah: Liverpool’s Egyptian King

Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)
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Mohamed Salah: Liverpool’s Egyptian King

Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)

A living legend in Liverpool, Mohamed Salah has two more years to burnish his astonishing legacy at Anfield after extending his contract on Friday.

In the midst of constant speculation over his future, the 32-year-old has produced one of the great all-time individual seasons to take the Reds to the brink of the Premier League title.

The Egyptian has scored 27 goals and provided 17 assists in 31 league appearances to help Arne Slot's men open up an 11-point lead for with seven games to go.

A third player of the year award from both his fellow players and football writers is a formality as Salah's latest prolific season has propelled him into the debate over who is the greatest player of the Premier League era.

Salah's 184 goals in the English topflight is the joint fifth highest in Premier League history, while he also now sits in the top 10 for assists.

He did not arrive at Anfield as a superstar destined for greatness when Liverpool paid Roma £34 million ($44 million) for his services in 2017.

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah lifts the trophy after winning the Champions League final match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, on June 2, 2019. (AP)

As a pacy winger with promise, Salah had hitherto struggled for consistency and end product with a string of European clubs since making the move from his homeland to Swiss side Basel as a 19-year-old.

Salah failed to make the grade in his first spell in the Premier League at Chelsea as the Blues discarded him after just 19 games in what proved to be a monumental mistake.

A move to Italy, firstly on loan at Fiorentina, before heading to Roma on a permanent basis restored Salah's reputation to tempt Liverpool into taking a punt on his potential, even if he was not Jurgen Klopp's first choice.

The German manager had wanted his compatriot Julian Brandt instead, but was convinced by the club's recruitment team and together they rebuilt the Reds into a force of English and European football once more.

- Fitness fanatic -

Klopp did not take long to be convinced as Salah scored 44 times in a stunning debut season, leading Liverpool to the Champions League final and a top-four Premier League finish.

He was quickly christened "The Egyptian King" on Merseyside and soon the trophies began to flow like his goals.

Salah left the 2018 Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in tears after being forced off by a shoulder injury in the first half which also limited the impact he could make for his country at the World Cup finals in Russia a few weeks later.

One year on, he scored in the final as Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 to deliver the first silverware of the Klopp era.

The club's first Premier League title for 30 years followed in the coronavirus-disrupted 2019/2020 season.

The FA Cup, two League Cups and another run to the Champions League final in 2022 underlined Liverpool's return to serial trophy contenders under Klopp -- and with it Salah's heightened status within the game and further afield.

He was named among Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2019 in which he was described as an "iconic figure for Egyptians, Scousers and Muslims the world over."

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah controls the ball during the English Premier League match between Liverpool and Newcastle United at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, on Dec. 16, 2021. (AP)

Salah has used that profile to call for greater gender equality in the Arab world and to appeal for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza following an Israeli air bombardment last year.

However, he has mostly done his talking on the field.

A fitness fanatic, Salah regularly posts images of his workouts on social media which he credits for allowing him to remain among the world's best despite his advancing age.

Klopp's emotional departure last year was seen by many as the end of an era for this Liverpool side.

Instead, in the first season under Dutch coach Slot, Salah has been the catalyst for an unexpected cruise towards the Premier League title.

"It's not a coincidence because the first day I arrived over here, we did a fitness test and he was our fittest player," said Slot.

"So it tells you what his plans were for the season. It also tells you a player that has so many great seasons at a club like this comes back like that tells you a lot about his personality."