Speaking to the man who first gave him his big break as a fresh-faced teenager, Jack Grealish opened up about why he felt his Manchester City career had faltered.
Contrary to ample reports suggesting that tactics or mismanagement were behind the Birmingham-native’s decline, Grealish felt he’d made mistakes and lost his way.
“People say to me, ‘What happened at City?’ But I had two good years there,” Grealish told former Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood in a Sky Sports interview.
“The first year, I was getting used to everything, going there for that amount of money, the pressure, and just getting used to the way the manager wanted to play and the environment.
“The second year we won the treble, and it was an unbelievable year. I loved it. The third year, I put that down to myself really and I feel like I didn’t do certain things right in that year.”
As his performances took a downward turn, the English midfielder lost his confidence, something a move to David Moyes’ Everton hopes to address.
“I’m at my best when I feel loved,” he added, “you know I’m quite vulnerable off the pitch and I wanted to go somewhere to just feel the love again, and to just wake up and want to play with a smile on my face again.”
In an era where anything less than invincibility draws rancour from armchair pundits and keyboard warriors, it was refreshing to hear a player being so blunt.
Grealish was even bold enough to admit his love of a party had caused problems.
“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 in my career.
“Sometimes, I’ll be honest with you, I probably haven’t picked the right times. Sometimes at City, for example, I didn’t help myself at times, I’ll openly say that, but then I don’t think it was all down to that.”
What’s so interesting about Grealish is that this is not the first time he’s shown vulnerability publicly.
In May 2024, he revealed how he used old footage to boost his confidence.
“When I’m injured, I start watching clips of myself and just remember how many good moments I have had in football. It brings back my love for football,” he explained.
“To be mentally strong is one of the most important things that you need to be. It’s one of the main things of playing for a big club like City.
“One thing that’s quite big at City is just concentrating on the next game. I like to watch clips of myself before games just to bring back good memories and fill myself with a little bit of confidence.”
At the time, Grealish was struggling for confidence; he couldn’t nail down a starting position for City and his performances were miles off the year before.
“I just think sometimes if you’re not playing and probably not up to it in training, in your own head you just don’t feel confident,” he told The Telegraph a month before.
“I wasn’t playing with a lot of confidence. I didn’t really feel that fit if I’m honest.”
It was a sad state of affairs for a player who just one year earlier had been probably at the peak of his powers.
Chosen as a starter for two legs against Real Madrid the previous April, he’d spoken like a man on top of the world.
“I feel this year we have really learned,” he gushed. “We have a great knit in terms of youth, experience and pure quality.
“We have brilliant players all over the pitch. I’ve never felt so confident playing in a team like this.”
The early signs are that he’s recovering that belief at Everton, making significant contributions in terms of assists and influencing games at will.
That’s no accident. The reason Grealish chose the club was because of the belief manager David Moyes had in him.
“I don’t mean this in an arrogant way but I do like it when managers say, ‘you’re the footballer, go and do what you want to do’,” he told Sherwood.
“I’d rather someone just be like, ‘when you get the ball Jack, just go and play.’
“That’s what he says to me. Obviously, you have your jobs, you have roles to do without the ball, but he says to me, ‘when you get the ball, just go and do what you want to do’.”
Grealish is a sparkling player when he’s on form, so it will be to the Premier League’s benefit if he can continue to keep his confidence high and deliver the goods on the field.