It took Gareth Southgate a fair while to be convinced that Jack Grealish was his sort of England player.
The best part of four years, in fact. But it turns out Southgate has never been convinced.
Ever since he made his debut in September, 2020, Grealish has had to join Southgate in insisting the pair have a great relationship, that they do see eye-to-eye, that the Manchester City man’s maverick ways are entirely suitable for the England manager’s plans and systems.
But there has always been a nagging feeling that Grealish is, quite simply, not Southgate’s ideal type of player. Or maybe, even character. And to make that sort of judgement is exactly what Southgate is paid to do.
To leave Grealish at home is a bold call in the sense that Southgate knows he is one of the players in this squad who can get the fans out of their seats. That is exactly what Grealish did as recently as last Monday when he made a crowd-lifting impact against Bosnia at St James’ Park and set up a showreel goal for Trent Alexander-Arnold.
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And that is exactly what he has done when he has played at Wembley for England. In fact, Grealish has spoken at length of how, ironically, he feels that he plays with more freedom with the national team than he does with his club side.
It now seems it is his club form that has cost Grealish a place at Euro 2024. But it could be argued that it is not so much his ‘form’ but the fact that, for large parts of Manchester City’s season, he could not get into Pep Guardiola’s side.
Grealish shone in his cameo against Bosnia but has failed to convince England's manager (Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)Well, there is no shame in not being a first-choice starter for Manchester City and Guardiola did trust him in both legs of the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid. He then started the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Wembley.
It is not as though he has become an outcast at the Etihad, far from it. Guardiola can go through phases of using certain players and even the likes of Ruben Dias have not been automatic starters. Grealish can count himself desperately unlucky not to make a 26-man roster and while it is a bold call in one sense, it is not a bold call in another sense.
Southgate has sacrificed the mercurial talent of Grealish for the greater work-rate of others. With such a surfeit of attack-minded talent, Southgate was always going to have to make tough, controversial calls.
Again, that is what he is paid to do. And time and results will tell if this is the right one or the wrong one. But one thing is for sure … if Southgate can leave a player of Grealish’s brilliance at home, he must be taking one hell of a squad to Germany.
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