It’s always nice to see a player rebound from adversity. Ahead of England’s comfortable 3-0 win over Wales on Thursday evening, Manchester City’s John Stones said he considered retiring last season amid endless injury problems.
But the 30-year-old Stones has already started five matches across all competitions for the Citizens this term, and he cruised through the win at Wembley, albeit suffering but surviving a fitness scare.
Stones isn’t the only one of a City persuasion to be targeting renaissance at the more mature end of their career, though, with Jack Grealish starting to look like a £100m player once again.
Only, he’s doing it over on Merseyside, in an Everton shirt.
Why Man City loaned out Jack Grealish
Pep Guardiola broke the bank when signing Grealish from Aston Villa for a British record £100m fee. It was 2021. The Three Lions star was silky and stylish and all the rest, but he got lost somewhere within the Man City mechanics during his four years at the Etihad.
Still, the 30-year-old is a Citizen, shipped out on loan to Everton this summer. But Grealish has returned to his finest form so far this season, notching four assists in August to claim the Premier League Player of the Month and scoring the recent winner at the Hill Dickinson Stadium to end Crystal Palace’s 19-game unbeaten run.
Grealish, perhaps, is at his best when the leading figure in a team, the talisman. Under Pep’s wing, something went awry, and he toiled on the margins for his past two Premier League campaigns.
If the Sky Blues succeed in selling the £300k-per-week talent permanently next summer, they will not recoup anything near the figure once paid.
Across 157 outings for Man City, Grealish scored 17 times and supplied 23 assists for his teammates.
He was never a prolific player, per se, but there’s no doubt plenty was left to be desired, and Guardiola knew it, handing his record signing just 17 Premier League starts across his final two terms. During this period, he notched six goal contributions.
Grealish isn’t the only one who might have been ferried out this summer, though, with Pep and co maybe looking back at the opportunity to sell Bernardo Silva for a hefty figure with something akin to regret.
Pep should have sold Bernardo Silva
Silva, 31, is one of the definitive superstars of the Guardiola era at Manchester City. A six-time Premier League champion, his 419 appearances for the club place him ninth in the all-time charts.
But he’s beginning to dip. Even though the boss named him captain this summer, Silva has lost some of the magic that has so often been discernible throughout his career, and Fabrizio Romano has said only this week that the veteran “has chances to leave Man City” ahead of 2026.
It’s been a long and storied career for Silva at Manchester City, but Guardiola’s side are evolving, and habitually have the rumours of the Iberian talent’s potential departure emerged in recent years.
Last season was a struggle for everyone at the club, but Silva felt the upheaval and tumult more than most. His output was halved, and he was placed on the substitute’s bench seven times across the latter half of the top-flight term.
17/18
53
9 (10)
18/19
51
13 (13)
19/20
52
8 (10)
20/21
45
5 (9)
21/22
50
13 (7)
22/23
55
7 (7)
23/24
49
11 (11)
24/25
52
6 (5)
25/26
9
0 (1)
Altered in his role, Silva no longer produces goals and assists with the same regularity, and Sofascore record he is averaging just one chance per Premier League game this season, losing 70% of his duels so far.
He’s captained Man City six times across all competitions this season, and remains one of the most fleet-footed and intelligent players in the Premier League, even described as “one of the best players” Guardiola has ever seen.
But, aged 31, there’s a sense he’s into the autumn of his career in English football, and is not indispensable as he once was.
He’s still a tenacious and layered attacking midfielder, ranking among the top 1% of positional peers across Europe for pass completion, the top 10% for tackles and the top 7% for carries per 90, but the Portugal international could have fetched a pretty penny indeed for City in the past, with Transfermarkt recording the ace once bore a market value of €100m (£86m).
Silva is among only the top 54% for goals and assists combined, which isn’t enough for a City side looking for different attacking dimensions, easing the burden on Erling Haaland.
Saudi Arabian suitors presented themselves last year, got their bids at the ready. It came to nought, but since the Portuguese star has hinted this coming season could be his last as he stares at the culmination of his contract in Manchester, might there be a touch of ruefulness that a big sale could not have been engineered, and instead City must wave goodbye to one of their best on a free?
News is indeed growing over the possibility of Silva’s summer departure on a free, with Benfica and AC Milan considered among the frontrunners. This is a reality that Man City must accept. Perhaps they should have sold him last season, or the year before, but having signed him way back in 2017 for £43.5m, there are some who would suggest City have received bang for their buck.
Concerning the regret over not selling sooner to speed up the rebuild, the same logic might be attributed to Grealish, who languished on the side at Man City for two years before earning a move to Everton and resurrecting his career. Had City cashed in on either before they dipped and waned, a hefty figure may have been had.
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