At the Pride of Britain awards a week back, we witnessed the brilliant and magnetic side of Jack Grealish, sprinkling stardust as he presented an award to a child of imaginable courage who counts the Everton player as his hero. ‘Footballers are classed as heroes – but these are the real heroes,’ Grealish said that night. You could have heard a pin drop.
It was no different when he arrived back at Everton in September, to the delight of the kids awaiting him and his white Lamborghini in the country lane outside the club’s Finch Farm training base. ‘It feels so good. I think I’m at my best at everything in life when I feel loved,’ Grealish said, articulating a very real sense that he was coming home.
He is popular around the club because it can be said without fear of exaggeration that he has a heart of gold. Only on Thursday, an Everton-supporting father-of-three with a cancer diagnosis that gives him weeks to live disclosed that Grealish had put £10,000 his way. But within hours of that simple act of altruism coming to light, evidence of the other Grealish emerged, as Everton announced he had been excluded from the squad to face Newcastle in the Carabao Cup for failing to turn up for training last week.
It was by no means the first time. Everton sources say there had been similar causes for concern last season. Grealish reported sick ahead of last weekend’s game at Arsenal, shortly after the Pride of Britain awards, and has breached Everton’s disciplinary code through an unauthorised absence. The stated reason for his absence at Arsenal was illness.
Everton’s owners, looking for Grealish’s glitz and glamour to gloss over their desperately poor and unambitious summer in the transfer window, were keen to bring him back. It was against Moyes’ own better judgement that he accepted his return as part of the deal that brought Iliman Ndiaye’s unwelcome departure to Manchester City. Moyes needed discipline in a thin squad where every player’s contribution would count this season. It was an opportunity for the few star players to inspire and shine a light for the younger ones. And therein lies the tragedy of missed opportunity where Grealish is concerned.
Jack Grealish remains popular at Everton and has a heart of gold, shown by a £10,000 gift to a fan suffering from cancer, but he has since been dropped over a breach of discipline
There were similar causes for concern last season, with his return this summer going against David Moyes’ better judgement
Grealish’s patchy attitude to a football life is affecting his game, as he is not taking his man on in the way he used to and does not emit such light on the wing
He, the quintessential British maverick playmaker in the mould of George Best and Alan Hudson, could be a Goodison hero of these days, yet seems incapable of showing he is bothered, ridding himself of the acolytes and hangers on who are dragging him down, and appreciating what an opportunity football offers him. Though he likes a drink, it’s not so much booze as his attitude, and a struggle to turn down a good night out, which is contributing.
There is no doubt that he still has the skills to be a cherished player. That much was clear in the early stages of last season when he was providing more assists than any other Everton player until a broken foot requiring surgery brought a premature end to his season.
This season he has, as yet, no assists. He has perhaps been frustrated at the number of chances he has created not being converted, though not every winger has Erling Haaland as his support act. Look hard enough, though, and you’ll see signs that his patchy attitude to a football life is affecting his game. He is not taking his man on in the way he used to and does not emit such light on the wing. Pep Guardiola, at Manchester City, was the first to see this and rapidly made it clear he wanted him gone.
It’s not too late for the 31-year-old to become the totemic presence that so many fervently want him to be on Merseyside. Moyes, who sees the wasted potential, has given him abundant support and patience since City left him out in the cold, hoping that he can make him see the opportunity, here. Thursday night’s excellent Carabao Cup win over Newcastle United opens up the potential for an exciting Cup run, with Fleetwood Town awaiting in the quarter-finals. Everton have not won a trophy for 31 years.
The hope must be that the significantly public nature of Grealish’s omission – very much a case of Moyes refusing to tolerate another breach – will shock him into action. It was even the wish of Prime Minister Andy Burnham, present at Thursday night’s match, that Grealish would be re-signed to Everton and the PM declared after meeting him at the Pride of Britain awards that the player was an example of the way people ‘buy into Everton.’
The collective wish for him to thrive at the club could not be clearer. Only he can make that happen.
READ MORE: No Jack Grealish, no problem: Everton star has let his team-mates down AGAIN and this latest episode shows he lacks the hard graft and humility so desired by David Moyes, writes LEWIS STEELE
