WHEN Jack Grealish’s name was inevitably uttered at Callum Robinson’s press conference in Abbotstown on Wednesday afternoon, the Cardiff City striker was right about one thing: his childhood friend will be in for a hot reception during Saturday’s Ireland versus England Uefa Nations League encounter in Dublin.
It’s weird how some things work out.
Robinson was playing for England’s underage teams, Grealish for Ireland’s. By the time they became fully fledged footballers, they’d swapped allegiances.
Robinson was recruited by Ireland and after a long-drawn-out affair, which ended the way everyone expected, Grealish declared for England in 2015.
Martin O’Neill was in charge of Ireland at the time and was on the receiving end of some stinging criticism for not persuading the talented winger to continue with Ireland.
Likewise, Declan Rice who was probably closer to becoming a fully signed up member of the Republic of Ireland senior squad.
The criticism O’Neill received from the Irish media over Grealish and Rice’s international allegiances was slightly harsh, as there was always more than a bit of clickbait about the story, which was reproduced a thousand times.
O’Neill maintained that Grealish and Rice were destined to declare for England and that was their right.
Would it have made any difference had O’Neill tried harder to persuade either player to stay? It’s doubtful.
Regardless, Rice and Grealish playing for England was always preordained.
“I’ll be surprised if he [Grealish] doesn’t [get booed on Saturday],” said Robinson, “because I think he gets booed everywhere he goes, even in England so I think he’ll be getting ready for a bit of abuse.
“But listen, that’s part of the game, and I think he’s old enough and being a senior player, that stuff is going to come. He gets it in Premier League games. I don’t think there will be any change on Saturday, I think he’ll be getting it.”
Grealish will need to bring his earmuffs to the Irish capital. Of that, there is no doubt.
But where there was more than a bit of contention around Robinson’s conviction that Gareth Southgate made a mistake by not including Grealish in his Euro 2024 finals squad.
“I was [surprised he was left out] and not just because he’s a close friend,” Robinson said. “I’ll be honest, I thought he’d bring something different to that squad on and off the pitch.”
The truth is Grealish’s club form wasn’t persuasive enough for him to make the England squad bound for Germany.
Southgate had enough game-changers on his bench - but, in the final analysis, he under-utilised them.
Cole Palmer’s form was so good that Southgate should have found a starting place for the Chelsea schemer, while Anthony Gordon’s directness and urgency seemed a better option than Grealish’s increasingly frustrating dallying in possession should the English be chasing a game.
The Birmingham-born 28-year-old can cite his medal collection since joining Manchester City – but is he a better player now than when he was in his pomp at Aston Villa?
What exactly is it that he has evolved into since moving to City in 2021? A safer player.
Winners’ medals can be a crude measure of attainment, especially at a club that has limitless fortunes which allows them to blitz their way to Premier League titles and the Champions League.
Only for Jurgen Klopp’s ‘Moneyball’ approach over the last number of seasons, the Premier League would have been a non-event.
But, amid all those podium appearances in the sky blue jersey, Grealish – let it be whispered – is not half the player he was at Villa.
At Villa, Grealish was a free spirit. The game-breaker. The entertainer with end product.
He was given licence to do whatever he wanted down Villa’s left-hand side.
He was more direct too, and a bigger headache for full-backs than he is now.
Some players are like that where you’re still coaching them without saying much to them other than ‘Go out and play’.
At City, there’s a joylessness to Jack Grealish, the footballer.
If there is one flaw in Guardiola’s approach it’s that everything feels too prescriptive, too over-coached and over-thought. Functional, even.
It’s as if the Catalan must be the inventor of something new each season - until he eventually signed a striker like Erling Haaland who communicated to him that football is still the simplest of games and that there is absolutely no need to complicate it.
Inverted full-backs, the obsession with outnumbering their opponents in the middle of the field, creating overloads. Making 20 passes when four would do. This has been the Pep way – a project lost in its own narcissism.
Grealish has been suffering from a dose of the yips in down the left side for long enough, where he perpetually turns away from one-v-one scenarios and plays an endless stream of safe passes back in field.
Some of those mind-numbing in-field passes make you question the whole point of him getting chalk on his boots in the first instance. He’d be better as a number eight in that case.
Guardiola and Grealish are like water and oil. They simply don’t mix.
Neither have been good for one another in all honesty - but they tolerate one each other.
As Ireland’s former underage player celebrates his 29th birthday next Tuesday, a penny for the affable winger’s thoughts about the varying degrees of enjoyment he’s got out of playing football for Aston Villa and Man City.
For now, though, may he continue to pass the ball in field at the Aviva on Saturday evening.