Does Jack Grealish still believe he is an elite footballer?

AFC BournemouthArsenalAston VillaBrentfordBrighton & Hove AlbionBurnleyChelseaCrystal PalaceEvertonFulhamLeeds UnitedLiverpoolManchester CityManchester UnitedNewcastle UnitedNottingham ForestSunderlandTottenham HotspurWest Ham UnitedWolverhampton WanderersScores & ScheduleStandingsFantasyThe Athletic FC NewsletterPodcastsA Tale of Two Semi-FinalsKeith Andrews ExclusiveVAR Controversy in MadridDoes Jack Grealish still believe he is an elite footballer?It feels unlikely Grealish will play for Manchester City again while Pep Guardiola is their manager Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images Share articleThere was a time in Jack Grealish’s career when Marca, the Spanish sports newspaper, used to run articles asking whether he might end up at the Bernabeu or the Nou Camp. This week, the same publication had an entirely different headline. “Grealish, Pep Guardiola’s lost cause at Manchester City because of alcohol,” it read. Three months since the foot injury that ended Grealish’s season, the accompanying photo had already gone viral. A rooftop bar in Manchester, a table filled with empty bottles and, slumped in his chair, the first £100million ($135m) player in British football, seemingly away with the fairies. “Booze party over recovery,” read another headline, in the Times of India. That was last weekend, and Grealish might have to understand why it has provoked so much seen-it-all-before commentary and also a fair amount of concern, away from the grinning emojis of social-media discourse, about the frequency with which he goes out, it seems, to drink himself into oblivion. And then a new day, with an entirely different set of images to remind us why so many people care about him and, in lots of cases, lap up the stories about him going on one of his blowouts. Who didn’t enjoy seeing Grealish being filmed meeting athletes from the Special Olympics? Who couldn’t be impressed by how natural he was, and generous with his time, as he demonstrated why he was such a good fit to be an ambassador for the British team. “With my little sister having cerebral palsy, it’s something close to me,” he explained on camera. “They have such beautiful personalities. Souls, man. It makes you happy to be around these people.” Everyone likes that version of Jack: caring and fun, down-to-earth and full of charisma. And maybe that helps to explain why so many people have no issue with the stories of his boozing, as if they see it as the heart-warming evidence that he is still, despite everything, just an ordinary bloke. Lots of us, the argument goes, like to go out for a few drinks when the sun is shining. So why shouldn’t somebody in his position be allowed? Is he harming anyone? And that is when this becomes a difficult subject if, like me, you count yourself as a Grealish fan (and most of us are). Because the answer is, yes, he absolutely is. Himself. If you disagree, perhaps it is worth contemplating what goes through Pep Guardiola’s mind when he sees a gotcha-style exclusive in The Sun about one of his Manchester City players being in that state, in the middle of the afternoon, looking completely out of it. Yes, Grealish was loaned to Everton for the season in August. But isn’t that the point? Guardiola moved him away from City because he thought the player was suffering from a case of blurred priorities. He gave up, in other words, on the most expensive player in the club’s history. And that, in Grealish’s own words, was a lot to do with the way he led his life off the pitch. “People go, ‘He likes to go out, he likes to party’. And I do. I want to be able to live my life and enjoy myself, but obviously there’s a time and a place to do that,” Grealish told Sky Sports earlier this season. “Sometimes, I’ll be honest with you, I probably haven’t picked the right times. At City, I didn’t help myself at times. I’ll openly say that, but I don’t think it was all down to that.” It is a tricky subject, for various reasons, one being that his popularity tends to spare him too much in the way of criticism (there’s a whole other debate about whether, for instance, Marcus Rashford or Raheem Sterling would be cut the same amount of slack). It’s just Jack being Jack, everyone says. This is what he does. He wasn’t breaking any rules. Nobody got killed. So why the fuss? When Gabriel Agbonlahor, a former Aston Villa team-mate, was asked for his thoughts during a show on UK radio station talkSPORT, he flipped the question around to have a go at whoever took the photograph. “My first thoughts were, ‘It just shows the sort of people that are out there’,” he complained. Ex-Scotland striker Ally McCoist, a more independent observer, was also in the studio. “That (photo) is not a good look. Of course it’s not a good look, let’s not kid ourselves. But at the same time, what happened to a bit of privacy?” he asked. “It might just be the worst invention on the planet — the camera phone. I’m telling you, (it’s) scandalous for the boys now.” All this can be true (even if nobody, let alone a category-A footballer, should really expect privacy in a city-centre bar/restaurant). Sometimes, though, it is tempting to think that Grealish is his own worst enemy. Hitting the town on a Saturday afternoon is not the problem. Nor is this about picking “the right time” to drink. But the relevant people at both City and Everton are entitled to ask: Is there ever a right time to get yourself in such a state that the headlines have gone across the world? Another important question: Does he not harbour any aspirations whatsoever of returning to play for City next season? OK, the chances of that happening seem somewhere between minimal and non-existent if the current manager remains in charge. But the sport is alive with talk that Guardiola will step down this summer. A new manager should not dismiss Grealish on the basis of one embarrassing story. But that person might have legitimate misgivings about the number of times we have been here before and the player’s apparent reluctance to change. It is a recurring theme, and if Guardiola, of all people, cannot get through to him, that raises questions of its own. Could anyone blame the next manager if he goes along with the current view inside the club and concludes, like Guardiola, that they are better off without him? Hypothetical for now, of course, but there are parallels with the way Wayne Rooney was marginalised by Manchester United towards the end of 2012-13 — Alex Ferguson’s last season as their manager. Rooney was boozing way too much for a footballer of that level (he has since credited his wife, Colleen, for stopping it from getting dangerously out of control). A lot of United’s players from that time had expensively stocked bars in their houses, but mostly for show. When team-mates visited Rooney’s place, however, they noticed how the optics in his bar always seemed to have gone down. Ferguson had given up on him and set up Rooney’s departure, supposedly to Chelsea, in what was described behind the scenes at Old Trafford as a leaving present for United’s next manager, David Moyes. As it turned out, Moyes had other ideas and brought his one-time Everton starlet back into the team via some strongly-worded advice. “Do you still think you’re a top player?” he wanted to know. Rooney replied that he did. Then Moyes hit him with the killer line. “Then why have Chelsea offered only £25million for you?” Moyes wanted to know if Rooney had allowed success to change him, if he had lost his edge and, if so, what he was going to do about it. And, all these years on, it has to be hoped that Moyes, as Everton manager, can get through to Grealish, too. Does he still think he’s a top player? Because if the answer is yes, then why did City send him out on loan? Why was he not playing in the Champions League this season? And why, at the age of 30, is it 18 months since he last played for England? Grealish’s time at Everton had gone well, for the most part, before the foot fracture in January that ended his season. He had joined a club on the up. It was clever on the part of Moyes to bring him to Merseyside and their fans will gladly welcome Grealish back if some sort of arrangement can be made to do the same next season. Ultimately, though, playing for Everton is not the same as chasing a Premier League title. City, in fact, are going for a domestic treble this season. And if they pull it off, you have to wonder whether the penny will drop and Grealish might realise that the advice from Guardiola, and many others, was only ever for his own good. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms