Everton's Summer Decisions on Grealish and George

Jack Grealish’s Everton story may yet prove to be a one‑season cameo rather than a full-length saga.

David Moyes confirmed this week that the club have not decided whether to turn the loans of Grealish and Tyrique George into permanent deals, with both players currently set to return to their parent clubs at the end of the campaign.

“We’ve got two players on loan and, obviously, at the moment, they go back to their clubs and we’ll take it from there,” Moyes said before Everton’s clash with Tottenham. “As the summer goes on, we’ll decide what path we’re going to take on both of them.”

Grealish’s impact – and the complication

Grealish arrived from Manchester City last summer needing a reset and, for a while, Goodison looked like the perfect stage. Given licence to roam, he rediscovered some of the sharpness and swagger that had faded in his final months at the Etihad.

Two goals and six assists from 18 Premier League starts only tell part of the story. Moyes leaned on him in big moments, and Everton’s attacking play often ran through the 30‑year‑old before his season crashed to a halt with a serious foot injury.

That injury now hangs over any permanent move. Grealish is under contract at City until 2027 and will report back to a club entering a new era after Pep Guardiola’s decision to step down. A new manager, a fit-again Grealish, and three years left on his deal: none of that screams “discount”.

Moyes, though, has made sure Everton’s support for the player has not stopped at the treatment room door.

“We’ve looked after Jack since his injury and his injury is coming on,” he said. “He had quite a bad break in his foot, which has been pinned and it’s looking in good order now. The surgeon has been speaking very well about it and thinks it’s healing greatly.

“Normally a player would go back to their parent club when injured and be looked after from there but we’ll continue doing our best for Jack.”

The bond is clear. The finances and the risk, less so. That is the calculation waiting on the other side of the season.

George impresses in the shadows

If Grealish’s loan has been defined by influence and then absence, Tyrique George’s has been about glimpses.

The 20‑year‑old arrived from Chelsea in January with promise but little senior experience. That has not changed dramatically: just one Premier League start and 182 league minutes tell you how hard it is to break into Moyes’s side mid-season.

Yet the manager’s language around George is strikingly warm.

“We like Tyrique, obviously we like Jack a lot – but we’ve not got an answer yet,” Moyes said. “We’ve enjoyed having Tyrique here – he’s been an excellent boy and his work-rate and everything has been excellent, so we’re happy with him.”

Coaches often choose their words carefully about young loanees. “Excellent boy” and praise for his work-rate hint at a player who has impressed behind the scenes even when the stadium lights have not been on him.

The question for Everton is whether that promise, built largely on training‑ground evidence, justifies a permanent outlay at a time when every transfer decision has to land.

Mykolenko deal close

Not every contract call is wrapped in uncertainty. Moyes also revealed that Everton are “very close” to agreeing a new deal with Vitalii Mykolenko, a move that would lock down a first-choice left-back whose importance has grown steadily.

In a squad with several moving parts, Mykolenko’s situation looks straightforward: he plays, he defends, he improves. You keep him.

Grealish and George sit at the other end of the spectrum. One is a marquee name trying to piece his career back together after injury, the other a youngster trying to prove he belongs at this level. Both have shown Moyes enough to earn public praise, but not yet enough to force a definitive decision.

For now, they pack their bags for Manchester and west London in theory, even as Everton’s staff keep working with Grealish on his recovery. The real verdict will come in the heat of the summer window, when sentiment gives way to numbers, medical reports and the cold reality of the market.

Everton have enjoyed their loans. The next step is deciding whether either man is worth a longer chapter in the club’s rebuild.