Jack Grealish: I was more free at Aston Villa than Manchester City
Jack Grealish says that he was “more free” when he played for Aston Villa compared to the “more structured” game he has to have at Manchester City.
The former Villa captain left for the champions for £100million ahead of the start of last season, but after being the undoubted star of the team under Dean Smith he has come under scrutiny for not having as much of an impact under Pep Guardiola.
As a result, recent speculation about his future at the Etihad prompted questions on how he views his situation while away with England during the international break.
Speaking at a press conference with the Three Lions, in a video on Sky Sports’ YouTube channel the former Villan’s captain said: “Before I moved to City, three or four years, I knew that I was going to play every game, every minute of every game. And I was captain there, and like you say I was one of the first names on the team sheet.
“When you come to a club like City, obviously this is no disrespect to the people I was with at Villa, it’s a great, brilliant club with very good players, but when you come to City and you have the likes of Kevin [De Bruyne], Phil [Foden], I could go on and on, it’s difficult.
“So it’s obviously different. It’s difficult at times because when I was at Villa I just played every game and you felt like you were in the rhythm… but you’re going to get [this] when you’re at a club with so many top players.”
Asked about his relationship with Guardiola he said: “It’s completely different to the way I was at Villa. I think at Villa I was more free. Here it’s more structured. I have a great relationship with the manager.”
Folly
It is difficult for any player to say no when the top team in the country at the time comes calling, and the majority will back themselves to become an important player no matter the quality of the competition.
Similarly it was hard for Villa to turn down a British record fee for a player who was their leader and a fan-favourite.
While not exactly a flop in Manchester, Grealish is certainly not the central figure he was in his years as the talisman in the Midlands.
And he may have hit on the reason why without realising, because there are strong suspicions that the kind of player he is requires him to be given the freedom to express himself in order to bring the best out of him.
Some would say he is overrated if he can’t function properly in the micromanaged set up of the City manager, but the kind of mercurial talent that Grealish is, just as the likes of Paul Gascoigne once was, often doesn’t fit in such a system.
To some players football just comes naturally to them and the more you force them to think about what they are doing the more it interrupts their instincts.
Even if there is a section of the Aston Villa support who may feel like it serves Grealish right for chasing the money, and City for upsetting the perfect situation for a local star, there will be another section who see it is a shame to see him going to waste.
Perhaps it will just take time for him to reach a comfort level at City, but it is hard to escape the feeling that he was already where he was meant to be and it will be difficult to recapture to real Grealish again.
In other Aston Villa news, Lucas Digne has suffered a suspected stress fracture on international duty.