The Jack Grealish Situation at Everton

Jack Grealish let Everton down.

We’re not going to discuss the ins and outs. There are plenty of rumours flying around about why he was missing from training, but we can only deal with the facts and won’t speculate.

The facts that the public knows are that he was missing from both the Arsenal and Newcastle games, and the latter was due to a disciplinary issue.

David Moyes has confirmed that he supports Everton's decision, but he failed to provide much more information than that.

This is a huge rarity in football. Plenty of stuff happens behind the scenes at football clubs that fans won’t even know about, but it’s incredibly rare that clubs publicly announce that a player is missing for these kinds of reasons.

If you can remember the last time it happened with Everton, let us know, but it’s certainly not happened recently. 

In reality, Everton wouldn’t prevent Grealish from playing if it wasn’t justified. David Moyes is a huge fan of Grealish, and from the outside looking in, he does feel like one his favourites.

The club invested a lot of money to bring him to the club on two occasions, so he’s clearly universally loved by many of the decision-makers. As a result, you might expect a little leniency from them in terms of punishment, but it’s clearly serious enough for them to make this decision. 

Based on that, it’s hard not to feel let down by Grealish. When you’re paying a player so much money to play for the club, you expect more. Reports have claimed this isn’t the first time he’s failed to report for training, which wouldn’t be a surprise considering they have gone public to release the information. 

There was a post going round that if this were other players, perhaps ones that aren’t as loved as Grealish is, the reaction would have been a little different.

It’s hard to disagree. I’m personally a huge Grealish fan and always have been, but that doesn’t give him a free pass from me. Any player that has an unauthorised absence from training that leads to being omitted from the squad for such a huge game, deserves criticism.

As mentioned, it’s clearly a serious situation. Everton wouldn’t drop him for such a big game if it wasn’t. Everton need Grealish at his best, but he needs to show respect to the club who is giving him a chance to revive his career.

You hear stories of Chelsea letting Eden Hazard get away with things in training. Paul Gascoigne wasn't the model professional at times. Is Grealish our version of Gascoigne or Hazard? In reality, no. He doesn't produce performance levels where Moyes, the club, and the fans will be happy for him to get away with things. 

This is a club who has given you a chance. A club where you say you love playing your football again, you love the fans, and love Moyes. These actions go against that. 

It wouldn't be a surprise to see Everton cancel his loan during the January transfer window. It's a lot of money to pay for a player who is happy to go missing for two big games. 

That money could be better spent elsewhere, even if I believe Grealish makes Everton a better side. 

I'd rather prioritise the development of George now.