We Don’t Need Him Anymore: Reactions from Gareth Southgate to Jack Grealish’s early retirement  from the England National Team

Gareth Southgate whittled down his provisional England squad for Euro 2024 a week ago, but the debate over Jack Grealish ‘s omission is still raging on.

Despite struggling for form at Manchester City last season, Grealish, 28, was expected to feature prominently for England during this summer’s European Championships. Instead, he will be watching the tournament from afar.

Much has been made of Southgate’s decision to leave Grealish out of his final 26-man squad for the Euros. And even with England’s Group C opener against Serbia on Sunday looming large, the dissenting voices over whether or not Southgate has made the right call look set to continue for some time yet. Here, Mirror Football looks at the background to Grealish’s omission…

Southgate’s U-turn

Southgate has long insisted that is a fan of Grealish and has even previously gone out to bat for the former Aston Villa man during difficult periods. The Three Lions boss outlined back in October that Grealish was always “brutally honest” about his own performances and Southgate felt that he was often “too harsh” on himself.

Grealish has been a regular in the England squad under Southgate in recent years, winning 36 caps for his country. However, just months after saying Grealish was too harsh on himself, Southgate made the decision to leave him out of his squad for the Euros.

“We’re blessed with options in attacking areas, all offering something slightly different. [ James Maddison ] and Jack give us something different as well, so they’re tough calls,” Southgate explained after unveiling his final 26-man squad. “We’ve gone over it and over it as staff to try and be fair. We back our decisions but we recognise we could have gone a different route. Both boys are big characters and great to work with.”

Grealish’s two-word message

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While Grealish hasn’t explicitly spoken out on the decision to leave him out of the Euros squad, a social media post on his Instagram account underlines just how much representing his country means to him.

Alongside a picture of him playing for England in the recent win over Bosnia & Herzegovina, Grealish wrote a simple yet powerful caption: “Nothing better”.

The real reason for his snub

Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara has an interesting take on the situation – he reckons that Southgate has never really rated Grealish, arguing that the England boss ignored him when he was at his dazzling best for Aston Villa.

Speaking to Grosvenor Sport ahead of Sunday’s match against Serbia, O’Hara explained: “I don’t think Southgate ever really loved Grealish. He never got the call up for England at Aston Villa when he was playing his best football, but Southgate had to put him in when he joined Manchester City and started playing most weeks.