There is something rather ironic about the Manchester City team Enzo Maresca is beginning to build.
Unfortunately for on-loan winger Jack Grealish, he’s on the receiving end of such irony.
This summer, Man City concluded their business with the £65 million signing of Iliman Ndiaye from Everton. The Senegalese forward was one of the Premier League’s highest-volume dribblers last season, forming part of a wider theme at City.
City are hoarding dribblers
Now City have the three players who attempted the most dribbles in the Premier League last season: Jeremy Doku with 162, Antoine Semenyo with 144 and Ndiaye with 136.
They also have four of the top eight players for successful dribbles, with Doku completing 84, Ndiaye 65, Semenyo 59 and Rayan Cherki 51.
Despite City’s reputation for dominance through calculated possession, they have been investing in unpredictable dribblers who run counter to City’s DNA.
Ndiaye’s arrival suggests that Maresca will be leaning into a more exciting approach to beating low blocks.
What about Jack Grealish
Knowing this, you can’t help but spare a thought for Grealish. Five years ago, when he broke the British transfer record, joining Man City from Aston Villa, many questioned what made Grealish worth £100 million.
Granted, spending nine figures on one player was far more of a novelty in 2021 than it is now, but the question did have an answer: his dribbling.
That ability to produce magic from nothing, his bravery and aggression in one-versus-one situations. It was those traits that seemed to be gradually stamped out of his game, and Grealish eventually became a safe player who would opt to pass backwards rather than taking on the opposition full-back.
The qualities that made Grealish the player he was at Villa are exactly the traits that make Doku, Semenyo, Cherki and now Ndiaye so highly rated.
Where the haul began
City began collecting players of such a profile back in 2023, signing then 21-year-old Doku from Rennes.
In his debut season, the Belgian netted six goals and nine assists in all competitions, before replicating that tally the following season. Last season, he managed 10 goals and 11 assists.
As Premier League sides adopted more conservative low-block approaches without the ball, possession-heavy sides began to struggle.
So, City invested again.
Last summer, Cherki arrived from Lyon and proved another immense success, registering 11 goals and 17 assists across all competitions.
In the January transfer window, the theme continued. Semenyo joined City from Bournemouth and hit the back of the net on 11 occasions in sky blue. City were three for three.
And what links all three players together, other than their speedy success in a City shirt, is their knack for taking players on and driving their side towards goal.
Then comes Ndiaye. In the Premier League last season, he scored six goals and assisted three. But, more importantly, he ranked in the top 2% of Premier League forwards for successful dribbles and the top 17% for take-on success rate.
Yet again, City are banking the big bucks on direct dribblers.
Grealish goes the other way
Meanwhile, forgotten man Grealish walks out the same door Ndiaye just came in. The Englishman has rejoined Everton on loan. Yes, with a smile on his face, but surely still with the lingering thought of ‘what if?’
Grealish loves the Hill Dickinson, and the thousands that fill it each week love him back. But now, just three days shy of his 31st birthday, he must look back and wonder where the last five years have gone.
One moment he was a 25-year-old lad with the world at his feet; the next, he’s been replaced three times over by players who shine in the same areas he once did – before being encouraged to tuck those qualities away in a cupboard.
It feels like a classic case of ‘right person, wrong time’. If there were a parallel universe where a 25-year-old Grealish had come through the door now, surely he’d have gone on to show the world exactly why City paid £100 million.
That’s not the case, though. So instead, 31-year-old Grealish made an impressive cameo for Everton against Manchester United on Sunday, in what was his second debut for the Toffees.
In those 24 minutes he was on the pitch, we saw glimpses of that young lad who danced down the wing in claret and blue. But in the end, we’re all left wondering what could have been.
Written by Isabelle Martin
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