Jack Grealish will always remember the date his transfer was confirmed from Aston Villa to English champions Manchester City.
The season prior to the transfer saw him score 6 goals and 10 assists for Aston Villa, which convinced Pep Guardiola to spend some big bucks on the England international.
How much, you ask? About £100m.
Some say that Pep and City overpaid for the midfielder. His valuation as per transfermarkt.com before the transfer was only about £59m. An underlying feeling was that the “English tax” was at play here.
English tax is a terminology used in club footballing circles wherein Premier League clubs pay astonishing premiums to purchase English talents. An English player is bound to cost much higher than an equally rated Non-British player.
Other players for whom clubs have paid this “tax” is Harry Maguire, Ben White and Jadon Sancho.
Regardless of the money paid, the Cityzens expected a lot from the 2020 Aston Villa Player of the Season.
But due to a variety of reasons, Grealish has been unable to come close to matching expectations, let alone surpassing them.
The 2021-22 season ended with the midfielder getting only 3 goals and 3 assists in 26 PL games.
He has played in only 3 of the 7 PL games this season, scoring once.
Manchester City has an abundance of talent and under-performance like this will only result in a lack of playing time for Jack.
Recently, manager Pep Guardiola tried to defend his player, saying “We didn’t sign him (Grealish) for goals and assists at Aston Villa – there were other reasons”.
Quite what these “other” reasons were, we are not really sure.
What we do know is Pep knows how football works. He has been in the business long enough. He knows he has to protect his players.
But he has a responsibility towards not just the players but the club owners as well. Grealish’s value has gone down due to his reduced playing time and output.
So Pep has tried to shift the battleground by giving justification, in order to recoup as much as he can on the investment.
But how much can Pep get back? For that, we look at his market value.
A player’s market value is calculated based on various parameters like age, performance and peer transfer values among other things.
Football Benchmark values him at £65m. As per TransferMarkt.com, the City player is currently valued slightly lower, at £63m.
The folks over at CIES Football Observatory rate him even worse, at around £52m.
FootballTransfers though have been especially brutal with Grealish, valuing him at a meagre £31m.
However, for teams to take a punt on him, it’s not just the transfer fee that matters.
His wages too, are quite high, earning upwards of £300,000 per week. For context, the average weekly salary in the league is somewhere around £70,000.
The Englishman is the second highest earner at the club, behind Belgian superstar KDB and new acquisition Erling Haaland.
Any willing club will have to fork out a considerable amount not just in transfer fees but also wages.
Jack’s World Cup performances, should he be in the squad, will influence a lot of teams regarding his transfer.
If he is dropped from the squad, however, his market value will take more tumbles. Let’s hope for Grealish’s, and Man City’s sake, that this does not happen.