The omission of Jack Grealish from the Euro 2024 squad has left Germany’s team in shock, although Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola may have anticipated it.
Grealish was not included in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man team following a challenging season at the Etihad. He only started in 10 Premier League matches and contributed to just six goals across all competitions.
His absence from the flight to Germany was significant, as Southgate chose to include players like Eberechi Eze, Jarrod Bowen, and Anthony Gordon instead, even though Grealish has been a key part of his team in recent years. According to the Independent, several German players were “stunned” by this decision.
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The Die Mannschaft’s camp are said to view Grealish as a player who “provokes fear in opposition when he runs at them”, and therefore, expected him to be selected. However, after the FA Cup final, Guardiola acknowledged that Southgate had a tough decision to make regarding Grealish, admitting, “he’s struggled this season.”
Guardiola also expressed confidence in Grealish’s ability to bounce back, adding: “Jeremy [Doku] has made an incredible step forward as everyone has seen in the last games. But Jack will be back at the level of last season I’m pretty sure.”
Unfortunately for Grealish, he won’t be able to prove himself at the Euros. Southgate confessed that it was Grealish’s form, or lack thereof, that let him down compared to his competitors.
“The fact is we’ve got some players who have been playing extremely well all season in the league and we just feel other players have had stronger seasons – particularly in the past six months or so,” the England boss explained. “We saw some fantastic performances the other night which underlined some of that and in the attacking area of the pitch we’re blessed with a lot of options and they’re all slightly different.
“[James Maddison] Madders and Jack [Grealish] would have provided us with something different as well and they’ve been tough calls. They’re calls we’ve gone over and over and over as a group of staff to try to be fair and to try to use the right rationale.
“We back our decisions but we recognise we could have gone a different route. The boys are big characters, fabulous team-mates and great boys to work with. It’s sad to have to deliver that news to them.”
Despite featuring in ten out of England’s last 12 games at major tournaments, Grealish has yet to publicly react about being dropped. Southgate mentioned that all of the seven players who were sent home received the news “respectfully”.
Additionally, an unnamed senior player from the chosen 26 squad was reported to have questioned Southgate specifically about excluding Grealish, indicating it even came as a shock within the England camp.