Grealish Never Conformed As Guardiola’s ‘obedient Little Schoolboy’ But Glorious Third Act Beckons | Jonathan Wilson

A fig toils unsocial astatine Bodymoor Heath. The ray fades, but against nan mounting sun his silhouette is distinctive: nan floppy hair, nan hunched gait, nan immense calves. Jack Grealish is working, honing and polishing, inventing, striving astatine nan limits of method excellence.

He has inspired Aston Villa to promotion. He has helped them debar relegation, found themselves arsenic a Premier League side. He is enormously popular. Even opposing fans respect his ability, lukewarm to nan consciousness he is still successful immoderate measurement nan impish kid successful nan playground, revelling successful his ability, having fun. That summertime astatine nan Euros he had go a cause célèbre, nan fig down whom nan clamour for Gareth Southgate to merchandise nan handbrake rallied, nan poster boy for nan benignant of pundit who wished England would conscionable judge successful talent.

But Grealish wanted more. He was a Villa fan, loved nan club, but he wanted to trial himself astatine nan very highest level, to compete for nan convention title, to play successful nan later stages of nan Champions League. He did not want to beryllium conscionable nan cheeky kid pinch nan jinking feet; he had master ambition. At which location came a flash of light, a puff of smoke, and location appeared connected nan heath a cadaverous, dark-haired fig – Mephistopheles, aliases possibly an agent. Grealish could person each these things, nan fig said, he could assistance trophies, moreover triumph a treble, if only he signed a six-year statement pinch Manchester City. As Grealish reached for nan pen, nan fig murmured, almost nether his breath, that location would beryllium a cost. But by past nan woody was done.

Which is really we person come, 4 years later, to this week, and Grealish, nan first £100m signing by a British club, being loaned to Everton. He has won 3 convention titles, a Champions League and an FA Cup; nan cadaverous fig has fulfilled his portion of nan bargain. Yet location lurks a consciousness that Grealish’s move 4 summers agone has not rather worked out, that though overmuch has been won, overmuch excessively was lost. Perhaps David Moyes, a communal statement of thought runs, tin thief nan mislaid boy rediscover his consciousness of joy.

Looked astatine coldly, Grealish’s profession has mapped an almost cleanable arc. A kid shows talent, joins his section club, prospers, leaves them for a giant, wins trophies, has 1 outstanding season, and then, arsenic he approaches 30, he drops down again joining different of England’s slumbering giants. How other should a profession look? You would astir apt want that 3rd shape to commencement 2 aliases 3 years later but that aside, this is beautiful overmuch nan model. Had he stayed astatine Villa, location would person been corners of nan net mocking him for his deficiency of ambition and deficiency of medals, arsenic happened pinch Harry Kane earlier he near Tottenham for Bayern.

Did Pep Guardiola inhibit Jack Grealish’s creativity? Photograph: Roger Evans/Action Plus/Shutterstock

But Grealish has go entwined pinch a broader discussion, nan doubts astir nan effectiveness of Pep Guardiola’s methods – which itself is simply a wide spectrum, ranging from kneejerk hostility from instinctive nostalgists who judge elemental is ever good, to considered study that wonders whether an obsessive attraction connected position and possession tin make a broadside predictable now that nan world has go acquainted pinch nan basal Guardiola methods.

Foremost among that 2nd class is Guardiola himself, a head who has maintained a authorities of almost perpetual evolution. That is 1 of nan reasons he signed Grealish: to adhd imagination and improvisation, conscionable as, a twelvemonth later, he would motion Erling Haaland, different subordinate who did not evidently fresh his system, who mightiness make nan clash that would make nan sparks of creativity.

Or astatine slightest it appears that was nan plan. Haaland resisted, refused his manager’s demands to driblet deep, to person himself into a gigantic imaginative midfielder. Grealish did not. Whatever Guardiola primitively intended for him, he soon began to trade Grealish to his philosophy.

Amid nan celebrations astatine nan extremity of nan 2021-22 season, arsenic City came from 2-0 down to hit Aston Villa and triumph nan title, Grealish, whose candid quality is portion of his charm, said of really inhibited he astatine times felt by Guardiola’s demands; his dribbles per crippled had dropped by 40%. The strategy had, possibly inevitably, changed him much than he had changed nan system.

The pursuing play was Grealish’s champion astatine City. He won nan treble. He scored 5 goals successful nan convention and group up different seven. Guardiola trusted him successful nan biggest games; he started each knockout crippled successful nan Champions League. Teammates nicknamed him nan Rest Station because you could springiness him nan shot and return a mates of seconds breather, knowing he was not going to springiness it away. His dribbles per crippled roseate by 7%.

Grealish adapted. He became a Guardiola player. But nan adjacent play he started only 10 Premier League games. The 1 aft that, past season, he started seven. Dribbles per crippled dropped by 56%. When City were chasing a extremity successful the FA Cup last against Crystal Palace, Guardiola preferred to move to Claudio Echeverri, a 19-year-old Argentinian who had ne'er played for nan club. And pinch that it was over.

Jack Grealish started only 7 convention games past season, a clear motion he had fallen retired of favour astatine Manchester City. Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Neal Simpson/Apl/Sportsphoto

Injuries person not helped, but neither has his manner – and Guardiola implied a link aft Grealish suffered a recurrence of a groin wounded successful February past year. Very fewer modern footballers person been pictured rather truthful often successful nan institution of alcohol. That is not to opportunity Grealish has led a life of hedonism, aliases moreover of a footballer of 30 years ago, but neither is he 1 of nan “obedient small schoolboys” – to usage Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s word – favoured by Guardiola.

Whether that is really he has ever lived aliases whether he mislaid immoderate hunger aft winning nan treble, only Grealish tin know. Perhaps he could tolerate nan restrictions only truthful long. But he is still young. If he tin stay injury-free, location could beryllium a glorious 3rd enactment to his career, possibly moreover a trophy astatine a nine that would really admit it.

And if he could rediscover that consciousness of joyousness while doing so, if he tin make nan Faustian woody a impermanent contract, what a profession that would be, opening and ending arsenic a celebrated schoolyard player, pinch a funny trophy-winning interlude successful nan middle.