When Jack Grealish came off the bench at St James’ Park on Monday evening, it felt like the clocks had turned back. It was 2021. Here was the Jack Grealish of Euro 2020, a man on a smiling mission to have fun and show Gareth Southgate why he deserved to be a tournament player for England.
The opposition were only Bosnia-Herzegovina, a crew drubbed 4-1 by Luxembourg in qualifying, but Grealish did everything he could to book a place at Euro 2024. Running at defenders, dropping his shoulder, spinning in crosses — one of which Trent Alexander-Arnold scored from — the old Grealish seemed to be back. We left the North East imagining he was on the plane to Germany.
For Southgate to leave the