Jack Grealish: I’ll be honest with you… I didn’t agree with Gareth Southgate’s shock Euro 2024 decision
JACK GREALISH is on a mission to prove a point with England after his Euro 2024 “devastation”.
The Manchester City winger felt Gareth Southgate was wrong to leave him out for the tournament in Germany.
Interim boss Lee Carsley recalled Grealish last month and started the £100million man – who has just announced he has had a baby girl with partner Sasha Attwood – in wins over Republic of Ireland and Finland.
Asked about his Euros axe, Grealish said: “I will be honest with you – I didn’t really agree with it.
“You can imagine how I was absolutely devastated. It was one of the most difficult periods of life in terms of football.
“It was difficult to just watch the games, especially for someone like me who watches so much football.
“I have won a lot of stuff now so, you asked me should I have gone, yes, I still think I should have, but obviously it wasn’t meant to be.
“I felt like I didn’t have the best season. If you look at some players in my position, for example Phil Foden, Anthony Gordon, Jarrod Bowen, they scored a lot of goals.
“But I know that my game is not just about goals. I give so much more to the team than goals.
“You need a bit of a balance in every position on the pitch and I class myself as quite an experienced player now.
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“I’ve played in a lot of big games — Champions League finals and FA Cup finals.”
Grealish, 29, scored in the 2-0 win over Ireland in Dublin and hopes to feature against Greece in the Nations League at Wembley on Thursday.
The three-time Premier League winner is feeling “a lot of love” playing for Carsley — a fellow Brummie.
And Grealish believes the former Three Lions Under-21s boss has all the qualities to land his new job on a permanent basis.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “He played me in both games and hopefully I repaid him by scoring in Dublin. It was nice to play in the No10 role.
“I wanted to come here and train well and play well. I thank the manager, Lee Carsley, for giving me that chance and having that trust in me. It’s really meant a lot.
“Throughout my career, when I’ve played under managers that have shown a trust in me and communicated with me the way he has in the past two camps, it has really helped me.
“I’ve felt a lot of love from the manager.
“It makes me feel that the manager really does rate me and I can’t speak highly enough of him since I’ve been here.
“He gets across to us how he wants us to play and how he wants me to play personally. The younger lads with him at the Under-21s said he is like a proper father figure.”