Breaking News: Jack Grealish’s next move is blindingly obvious amid £100m Man City exit talk as tends to…

A penny for Jack Grealish’s thoughts. This time three years ago, give or take, the winger and his granite-hewn calves were causing a nation to swoon as England battled their way to a European Championship final. Today, he wakes up with the Three Lions on the cusp once again, except this time around the closest he has managed to get to the action is appearing on the occasional mayonnaise advert during a half time break here and there.

The reasons for this are fairly simple. Last season, we did not see anything like Grealish’s best in a Manchester City shirt. The 28-year-old has admitted as much himself. And that dip in form, coupled with the emergence of a fresh crop of competition in wide areas – the likes of Anthony Gordon, Eberechi Eze, and Cole Palmer, among others – means that Gareth Southgate has simply chosen to look elsewhere for his injections of impetus.

In recent days, however, questions have been asked about Grealish’s future at the Etihad too. According to a report from Football Insider, City have taken the decision to sell the attacker this summer, citing both his decreased output and ‘a dim view of some of his antics off the pitch’ as justifications. The online outlet go on to suggest that were City to offload Grealish over the coming weeks, they would ideally like to recoup a significant chunk of the £100 million or so that they paid for him in 2021.

But whether the affable Brummie actually leaves or not remains to be seen. For one thing, it is not easy to envisage a vast, winding queue of suitors for Grealish’s services. This is not because he is a bad player, of course, but rather that there are very few clubs with the better part of £100 million just lying around burning a whole in their pocket – and those that do are not necessarily in the market for a soon-to-be 29-year-old winger who recorded four goal contributions in 20 Premier League appearances last season.

Then there is matter of the value that he still holds to City. As Joe Bray of the Manchester Evening News puts it: ‘The prospect of a transfer away has always been fanciful. City won’t want to sell their record signing, and know he can rediscover his form next season… His value remains at the Etihad, and there will be confidence that he can turn things around again.’

Bray’s colleague, Simon Bajkowski, reiterates this point, adding: ‘Jack Grealish is obviously staying at City this season, where he is effectively auditioning for his future. Pep Guardiola is prepared to continue with the forward because he knows how good he can be’. And he’s absolutely right. While 2023/24 was an underwhelming campaign for Grealish, there is no denying that on his day, he is a special talent – a unique proposition who boasts qualities that few others in the Etihad dressing room do.

Perhaps, then, Grealish’s best move this summer would be to make no move at all. Instead, he must shake off this niggling exit talk, get his head down in preseason, and rekindle the kind of form that convinced City to spend such an exorbitant amount of money on him in the first place. He will fully believe that he is capable of doing exactly that – and with good reason. Who knows, if he can turn things around in Manchester, he may even force his way back into the England squad in time for the World Cup in 2026.