Jack Grealish has clowned his way into a cheerleading role for England and Man City

Will Ford
Grealish England

Jack Grealish may be focused on his football for England and Man City but we’re not. That could be a problem.

It’s around this juncture of a major tournament when infrequent watchers of football start watching the football. You may well end up being in the minority in England if you don’t tune in to watch Gareth Southgate’s boys take on France on Saturday.

Many casual observers won’t be able to name all of the England players. Most will be able to pick out Harry Kane, a lot will know of Harry Maguire, but perhaps the most recognisable face and name will be starting on the bench.

Jack Grealish is an excellent commodity for the tabloids – a good-looking, cheeky Brummie who loves to drink, speaks his mind and winds Graeme Souness right up.

The fact that he’s not really playing football all that much is beside the point for those garnering clicks, but it could start to become a problem for Grealish who, without minutes on the pitch actually being a footballer, will continue to be cast as the metrosexual cheerleader for club and country, cementing a party-boy reputation he does little to debunk.

As Grealish says, he’s “got a good heart”, as proven by his celebration for Finlay Fisher and regret over the “stupid things” he does when out on the p*ss. But in that same interview, poked by a reporter for a typical headline, Grealish confirmed – like a stag do rep in Benidorm – that “it would be one hell of a week or two” if England won the World Cup.

It’s the sort of response that makes us normallows warm to him – it’s nice to think of footballers enjoying what would provide us with so much pleasure. But it’s also a bit of a shame that he feels the need to respond in kind to a question clearly designed to bring a bit of Jack the Lad out of Jack the professional footballer, whose focus is surely on winning the World Cup, rather than the potential for a few drinks afterwards.

It’s not that Grealish actually needs to ‘focus on his football’ as Souness and the other self-proclaimed football hard-men insist, but that he engenders that image, answering cheeky questions with a wink and a smile to suggest a lack of professionalism that is almost certainly wide of the mark.

Jack Grealish celebrates

Grealish may not care about the difference between public perception and reality, but being pegged increasingly as a figure of fun appears to coincide with the stagnation of his career. There may be a self-fulfilling element at play here, with Grealish feeling the need to play the role he has conspired with the media to create of the guy who’s enjoying the life of a footballer more than actually playing football.

At Euro 2020 it was Grealish cast as the unlucky member of the Three Lions squad who Gareth Southgate had to start but didn’t. Now there appears to be an acceptance, among England fans and even Grealish himself, that he’s no more than an impact player in this World Cup squad.

“When I come on here all the lads says to me if we’re drawing at half-time, ‘make sure you’re ready’ and it makes you feel like that they want you, it makes me feel good,” Grealish said.

It’s a similar story at Manchester City, for whom he’s started just six of their 16 Premier League games this season. Reports suggest Grealish is ‘devastated’ by his lack of game time under Pep Guardiola, who’s reportedly willing to sell him just 18 months on from his £100m move to the Etihad to fund a move for Jude Bellingham.

Faced with an exit, who would want to sign Grealish? He’s not played much football nor claimed many goals or assists in the last 18 months, with memories of City-era Grealish more likely to be arguments with Souness and drunken disses of Newcastle players than anything he’s done on the football pitch.

We’re not suggesting Jack Grealish should stop being Jack Grealish – it’s worked pretty well for him so far – and if you ever hear us say any professional footballer should ‘focus on their football’ you can take us out the back and put us out of our misery. But perhaps he should do himself a favour and stop talking about his off-field antics, to allow us – as well as people who have the ability to improve his faltering career – to focus on his football.