Barcelona reject Grealish ‘offer’ as £100m star seeks Man City exit having been ‘totally sentenced’

Will Ford
Man City winger Jack Grealish sits on the bench
Man City winger Jack Grealish sits on the bench

Barcelona have reportedly rejected Manchester City’s ‘offer’ of Jack Grealish as the England international looks to make a late exit from the Etihad in the January transfer window.

Grealish, who joined City for a club-record £100m from Aston Villa in the summer of 2021, has started just six Premier League games this season and the arrival of Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt this month is thought to have ‘pushed him to pack his bags’.

Grealish was already finding game time hard to come by before the Egyptian’s arrival thanks to Phil Foden, Savinho, Bernardo Silva and Jeremy Doku all being preferred to him being Erling Haaland in the forward positions.

“Savinho is in better shape and everything than Jack,” Guardiola said when asked why Grealish finds himself at the bottom of the pecking order at City earlier this month. “I want the Jack that won the treble,” he added.

According to reports in Spain, Grealish ‘has completely lost Guardiola’s confidence’ and has now been ‘totally sentenced for his poor performances’.

Grealish is now ‘seeking a way out’ of Manchester City and the club bosses are said to have ‘offered’ the England international to Barcelona.

Unfortunately for City and Grealish the Catalans are ‘not falling into the trap’ this time.

The report details Barcelona’s poor record of signing players from the Premier League giants, with only Ilkay Gundogan – who spent just one season at the Nou Camp – ‘showing a really convincing level’.

Eric Garcia is ‘a candidate to be transferred in the summer’, Sergio Aguero retired shortly after joining Barcelona, while the £50m the club spent on Ferran Torres ‘has never been justified’, with the Spain international ‘one of the first sales’ sporting director Deco is looking to make at the end of this season.

Guardiola may change his mind over Grealish should academy graduate James McAtee leave this month.

The 22-year-old emerged as a target for Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen following a season-ending Achilles’ injury to forward Martin Terrier, according to Fabrizio Romano.

Romano said Leverkusen made an approach to the Premier League champions and were looking to sign McAtee on loan with an option to buy.

Romano wrote on X: ‘Bayer Leverkusen have approached Man City to sign James McAtee. Loan + option offered to City; Xabi Alonso, huge fan as he’s 1st choice to replace injured Terrier.

‘Man City and Pep Guardiola are reluctant to let him go as feel he can become a regular starter.’

That now looks unlikely after fellow transfer expert Florian Plettenberg instead claimed Leverkusen are set to sign Aston Villa’s Emiliano Buendia, but interest from elsewhere remains in McAtee, who could look to force his exit in search of more game time.