Manchester City officials privately admit to £210m Jack Grealish blunder
Manchester City had two key targets in mind last summer; Jack Grealish and Harry Kane. Perhaps, signing Harry Kane was more of a priority than Jack Grealish but in the end, City finished the summer window having signed only Grealish.
Last summer was all about City trying to replace club legend and former striker, Sergio Aguero, who left on a Bosman. With Aguero gone, City are now without a proper number nine and which is why their pursuit of Harry Kane made so much sense.
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With that said, Grealish was heavily tipped to sign up with the Cityzens but to date, there has been no clear indication of what the Englishman has added to Pep Guardiola’s setup.
At Aston Villa, the system was built around the 26-year-old but at the Etihad, it has been all about fitting into Guardiola’s ideology of short passes and positional play. In short, Grealish is no longer the main man in his team.
As per a report from Football Insider, City chiefs have privately admitted to committing a blunder by splashing as much as £210 million on Jack Grealish.
City broke the bank to trigger the £100 million release clause in the 26-year-old’s contract and have put him on a mammoth £350,000 weekly wages, taking the total cost of the operation to around £210 million.
The source also understands that the general consensus at the Etihad is that they would have been better off had they signed Harry Kane over Jack Grealish.
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City made three record-breaking bids for Kane last summer but Tottenham’s insistence to hold on to the English striker meant that the Sky Blues would have to meet the unrealistic £150 million valuation of Spurs chairman Daniel Levy if they were to land Harry Kane.
Post the summer drama of last year, both Grealish and Kane have struggled to replicate their form of the past seasons with the latter scoring only 5 goals in 19 PL appearances.
Grealish thus far has netted only thrice and has assisted as many times in 23 appearances across all competitions for the defending Premier League champions.
It remains to be seen if Grealish can ever bring justice to the £100 million that was splashed on him. The former Aston Villa skipper still remains one of the most talented players in Europe and one would reckon that it would only be a matter of time before he gets going and lights up the Etihad.