Jack Grealish is heading back to Everton for a second successive season, with Manchester City and the Toffees finalising a fresh season-long loan agreement in the closing hours of the summer transfer window.
The 30-year-old winger enjoyed an instant rapport with Everton supporters last season after joining David Moyes’ side in search of regular football, and that switch has now been extended for another year.
According to City Xtra, Grealish will complete his return to the Hill Dickinson Stadium after undergoing a medical, bringing an end to weeks of speculation over his future.
Sunderland had reportedly tabled a formal offer to take Grealish on loan, and several other clubs were said to be monitoring his situation, but the England international made it clear that Merseyside was his priority.
It is a stance he held throughout the window, even as interest from elsewhere in the Premier League grew.
Everton had the option to sign Grealish permanently for £50m last season but chose not to trigger it, largely because of the financial commitment involved in matching his reported £300,000-a-week wages at City.
That same issue appears to have shaped the structure of this deal too, with City again required to help cover a significant portion of his salary to get an agreement over the line before Tuesday’s deadline.
Grealish joined City from Aston Villa in 2021 for a then club-record £100m and went on to become one of the era’s most decorated English footballers, winning three Premier League titles, the Champions League, the FA Cup and the League Cup.
He was instrumental during City’s treble-winning 2022-23 campaign, scoring important goals against both Arsenal and Liverpool and starting every knockout match on the way to the club’s first European Cup, sealed with a 1-0 win over Inter Milan in Istanbul.
A career revival cut short by injury
That success, however, gradually gave way to peripheral status under Pep Guardiola, and last summer’s loan move to Everton was framed as a chance to rediscover his best form.
It largely worked. Grealish became a fixture on the left side of Moyes’ attack and was widely regarded as one of Everton’s most influential players before a stress fracture in his foot in January curtailed his campaign.
The injury also cost him a place in Thomas Tuchel’s plans, and he was left out of contention as England prepared for their recent commitments.
Still working his way back to full fitness over the summer, Grealish missed Manchester City’s pre-season tour of Hong Kong and South Korea, played 45 minutes of their Community Shield defeat by Arsenal, and came off the bench in the win over Bournemouth on the opening weekend.
He was a notable absentee, though, from the squad that thrashed Crystal Palace 4-1 away from home last week, a sign that his departure was already close to being sealed.
Under Enzo Maresca, who succeeded Guardiola as City head coach this summer, opportunities for Grealish looked set to be similarly limited, making a temporary return to Everton the most sensible route for regular minutes as he enters the final year of his contract at the Etihad Stadium.
With no permanent transfer completed, Grealish will be a free agent next summer, at which point Everton — or another suitor — could move to sign him outright.
For now, though, his focus will be on picking up where he left off on Merseyside, aiming to force his way back into international reckoning and remind the Premier League why he was once one of English football’s most sought-after attacking talents.
