Manchester City have made a couple of big money recruits ahead of the upcoming campaign, but they will also be hoping that one of their signings from last year will also make a larger contribution in the season ahead.
Jack Grealish arrived at The Etihad for a £100million transfer fee, but it's fair to say he has yet to live up to expectations. While it was a successful season on a team level in 2021/22, the England international was not a key part of that. He was in and out of the side, not even coming off the bench as they chased the Premier League title at home to former club Aston Villa on the final day of the campaign.
City's spending power and strength in the squad mean that they were not hindered by Grealish's lack of impact. In saying that, they will want to see much from him in the months ahead.
Roy Keane on Jack Grealish Man City struggles
Roy Keane is someone who knows Grealish fairly well having worked with him during his brief stint as an assistant manager at Aston Villa.
Speaking to Sky Bet, he said that the 26-year old deserves more time at his current club. however, he also warned that he will have to start to improve if he is to have a future under Pep Guardiola.
We’ll try and give Jack the benefit of the doubt. We were talking about his age earlier, he’s what 26 – 27, now.
We’re thinking maybe he should have gone to City and maybe adapted a bit quicker but sometimes it can be difficult.
He’s gone in and not really had the run of games, he had one or two injuries earlier in the season, he would have been disappointed even in the last game being left out against his old club Aston Villa but they got over the line.
You’d fully expect Jack to have adapted more to the demands of Man City and of Pep [Guardiola], I think Pep certainly would have been intense with him and maybe Jack wasn’t quite used to that.
We’ve seen him being left out of big games for City and Gareth [Southgate] has done the same with England.
The penny has to drop with Jack, if you want to be a real top player you’ve got to step up to the plate a bit more and the manager’s got to have a bit of trust with him.
Again fine lines, with Jack, an attacking player, we saw Jack in the Real Madrid game he had one or two chances.
But this will define a player, these moments, can you put the ball in the back of the net and get your team into the final? And that’s where Jack has just come up short, but I wouldn’t be writing him off just yet.
There will be plenty of competition for places at City once again this season, although there may be more of a path for Grealish to get into the team on the wing. Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, two players who frequently started as wingers last season, have left the club.
The Englishman is certainly going to have to show far more this season if he is to show he can be an important contributor at a club competing for the biggest honours.
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