3 hours ago
21
Jack Grealish has had a difficult time at Manchester City but he looks reborn and if his form continues there should be a queue of suitors for him next summer.
After missing out on an England recall, Jack Grealish can put his feet up for a couple of weeks now, with Everton facing his parent club Manchester City after the international break.
The 30-year-old is probably disappointed to see his momentum stall after scoring his first goal for Everton in the final minutes of their win against Crystal Palace on Sunday.
There was a slice of fortune to Grealish's first competitive goal since April, but it continued his encouraging start to life on Merseyside. He has quickly become a fan favourite at the Hill Dickinson Stadium and a key part of Everton's attack.
The Toffees will miss him at the Etihad on Saturday week, but that is the condition that comes with a loan from a Premier League rival. UEFA will allow Claudio Echeverri to potentially face his parent club for Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, but domestically, it doesn't happen.
It will deny Grealish an Etihad return for now and in truth, his days at City are numbered, no matter how well he does for David Moyes' side. So far this loan deal is working for both parties, in that Grealish is rediscovering his best form and City are seeing his stock rise.
The almost inevitable outcome is a permanent parting of the ways next summer and Everton do have an option to make that happen for £50millon. No matter how well Grealish plays, they are unlikely to activate that for a player who turns 31 a month into next season.
But if this form continues, a sale should be achievable, and that is an improvement on the window just gone, when there was little chance of a permanent move being struck.
City won't get close to recouping the £100million they paid Aston Villa to sign Grealish in 2021, but then that was never the plan. The Blues might have a superb track record of profiting from academy graduates, but when it comes to selling first-team players, it is always more difficult, especially if they are being sold because they haven't quite made the grade.
That is the case for Grealish, who never did build on the potential he showed in the final six months of the treble season. It has been downhill since then for him.
City can still claw back the fee they need for him, however. Rather than looking at profit and loss, clubs tend to focus on book value now, with the aim of avoiding any breaches of the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability rules (PSR).
Having signed a six-year contract when he moved from Villa Park, Grealish's £100million fee is spread over six years for accounting purposes, so by the time next summer rolls around, he will have a book value of £16.7million in the club's accounts.
Any sale above that figure would count as a profit in City's yearly accounts, which would be marked down as a success. At the moment, a fee in the region of £20million, even for a player with just 12 months left on his contract, looks doable.
City don't have any reason to be concerned with their PSR position. They remain a huge success commercially and the ability to sell academy graduates helps generate substantial profit for accounting purposes. But ensuring another first-team sale goes down as a 'book profit' will still be good news for them.
---
Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis.
Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.
You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.
And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can also watch along on YouTube.
English (US) ·