Jack Grealish: Manchester City’s Fragile Future
Jack Grealish’s Manchester City future has rarely felt as fragile as it does now.
Back at the training ground, but left off the plane for the club’s pre-season tour of Hong Kong and Seoul, the £100m winger sits in an uncomfortable limbo: still a City player, no longer a guaranteed part of City’s plans. The fanbase, judging by the reaction, is just as split.
A champion, now on the fringes
This is not some fringe squad player in question. Grealish arrived as the poster boy of a new era, the record signing with the swagger to match the price tag. He has won everything domestically in sky blue, played key roles in title run-ins, and helped set the tempo in games where control mattered more than chaos.
Yet last season told a harsher story. City found rhythm and ruthlessness without him for long stretches. Others stepped in, the machine kept whirring, and Grealish’s influence faded. When a player of that profile misses out on a major pre-season tour, it raises more than eyebrows. It raises the question: what happens next?
Fans divided: from “not worth having back” to “get him playing again”
Among supporters, patience is clearly thinning for some. June, a City fan, doesn’t see a way back.
“City played better without him last season, so why have him back in a City shirt?” she asks. “He spent too much time on the grass instead of playing. So, to my mind, he is not worth having back.”
It’s a brutal assessment, but it taps into a growing feeling that the team’s evolution has left Grealish behind. The tempo has gone up, the margins have shrunk, and every attacking slot now feels fiercely contested.
Others, though, see something worth salvaging.
Roger wants the club to lean into experience, not discard it.
“I'd love to get him back playing a part in the team for this coming season,” he says, before drawing a line to other departures. John Stones’ exit hit him hard, as did the uncertainty around Kevin de Bruyne’s future. To him, these are the characters who carry a dressing room through difficult months.
“These players, albeit at the end of their careers and with injury baggage, would and could have a significant impact on keeping the team spirit alive,” he argues. “We may have pipped Arsenal if they had still been a part of the team.”
For Roger, Grealish still belongs in that bracket: seasoned, battle-tested, capable of swinging tight moments and steadying the mood. His concern runs deeper than one player; he fears a slow erosion of the core that made City relentless.
He even points to James Trafford’s departure as another misstep, a decision that might come back to haunt the club in the seasons to come.
“Worst signing since Lee Bradbury”?
Not everyone is so forgiving.
Paul does not mince his words. “We should get rid,” he says flatly. To him, Grealish is “City's worst signing since Lee Bradbury,” a stinging comparison that harks back to one of the club’s more forgettable transfer misfires.
“He is a legend in his own head and he brings nothing,” Paul adds. The number on the back of the shirt only sharpens his criticism. “He wears the number 10 shirt, but he couldn't hit a barn door.”
That kind of language underlines the frustration. The shirt once worn by creators and match-winners now, in Paul’s eyes, hangs on a player who no longer justifies the responsibility.
A crossroads at the Etihad
Strip away the emotion, and the situation is stark. A high-earning, high-profile winger is on the outside of a touring squad at a time when places are precious and pre-season minutes matter. The manager is assessing options. The club is weighing up pathways. Supporters are already taking sides.
Some see a fading asset who should be moved on while he still carries value. Others see a proven title-winner who, if properly managed and fully fit, can still influence the biggest games and protect the culture that has driven City’s dominance.
For now, Grealish is stuck between those two versions of himself: the player he has been for City, and the player some now believe he no longer is.
The next move — stay and fight, or walk away and restart — will say as much about Manchester City’s direction as it does about Jack Grealish’s.
