It was on the prelist. Ultimately no. Gareth Southgate, coach of the England national team, had included him in a list of 33 footballers that was released on May 21. There he had already excluded Marcus Rashford, Manchester United forward, a Liverpool legend like Jordan Henderson – now at Ajax – and Raheem Sterling, currently at Chelsea. But in the cut he left him out of Euro 2024. On June 6, twelve days before the start of the European competition, the coach formalized the 26 summoned and Jack Grealish, Manchester City’s number 10, the most expensive English player in history, was not.
The decision made headlines in England. The image that illustrated the cover was Grealish’s face: it represented the fall of a talent. “The fact is that we have some players who have been playing extremely well all season in the league and we feel that Other players have had stronger seasons, particularly in the last six months,” Southgate argued at a press conference. He said that on offense he has many different options: “Madders (James Maddison) and Jack (Grealish) would have also given us something different and they have been difficult decisions. “They are calls that we have repeated over and over again as a staff group to try to be fair and use the correct justification,” he explained.
Declan Rice, Arsenal midfielder and friend of Grealish, told the press that those who were relegated from the continental tournament were “destroyed.” He did not play the last four games of the season for his team, Manchester City: he was not called up against Fulham, he watched from the bench the victories against Tottenham and against West Ham on the last date of the Premier League, and In the FA Cup final he also did not play against Manchester United, even in a duel in which Pep Guardiola could have given him minutes due to the need to renew the offensive strategy given the adverse procedure.
In the last season, the one born in Birmingham 28 years ago played thirty games with the citizen team: He scored just three goals and gave only two assists. His influence was relegated by the inclusion of the Belgian Jérémy Doku, City’s reinforcement and favorite in the coach’s choice, and the brilliance of Phil Foden, chosen as the best footballer of the season in the Premier League. Grealish went from starting to not being the first or second option in attack on the substitute bench.
Kyle Walker He is the captain of City and one of the leaders of the English team’s dressing room. When asked about his teammate’s absence he said he was surprised because he knows what Jack is capable of doing on the field. “But was I surprised by the players he (Southgate) has brought in? No, because I think everyone is in a great moment and everyone has had fantastic seasons,” he said in conversation with ITV Sport.
Walker recognizes that the 26 called up are there for having done merits and says, without saying, that Grealish did not do them: “You are on this team because you played well for your club”. “I think Jack would be the first to say that he could have had a better season. I think he came out publicly and said he could have had a better season.” In the interview, he asked what a coach bases on when making a selection of footballers, whether in past seasons or in the current state. His voice, and his admission that Grealish was not called up, escalated in the British media because the City captain chose not to be indifferent and escaped political correctness to talk about his teammate’s performance. He hinted that the inclusion of Crystal Palace winger Eberechi Eze, West Ham striker Jarrod Bowen or Newcastle player Anthony Gordon are justified.
Grealish, who joined the last Premier League champion in exchange for one hundred million dollars from Aston Villa, will then have a vacation. He is not among the best 26 English players of the moment, as if he was in 2022 when England played the World Cup in Qatar and in 2021, when England reached the final of the Euro Cup. Today you will be able to see the debut of the England team for the continental tournament held in Germany: those led by Gareth Southgate will face in eThe debut against Serbia for a match corresponding to group C. At the moment, all the candidate countries have won their first matches: Germany 5 to 1 against Scotland, Spain 3 to 0 against Croatia, Italy 2 to 1 against Albania and the Netherlands 2 to 1 against Poland.
