Rise at Villa, flop at City, revive at Everton: Grealish third player to take same road
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Reading Time: 2min | Tue. 12.08.25. | 14:04
The England international takes the exact same path as Gareth Barry and Fabian Delph already did before him
Jack Grealish's move on loan from Manchester City to Everton captured everyone's attention not just because of the deal itself but also because it continued a quite noticeable trend.
Grealish is not the first former Aston Villa captain to push for a Villa Park exit, and he is not even the first to end up joining Everton with a stop in between at Manchester City.
He left the Villans in 2021 for a British-record fee of around £100 million, but it has not worked out for him there, so he decided to join the Toffees on a season-long loan.
Thus, he has followed the footsteps of two other ex-Villa players - Gareth Barry and Fabian Delph.
Barry became a household name at Villa before moving to Manchester City in 2009. Unfortunately for the then-England international, he struggled for game time at the Etihad and joined Everton on loan in 2013. After a perfect 2013-14 at Goodison Park, Barry signed a permanent contract with Everton and played there successfully for three more years.
Fabian Delph followed the same road. Despite signing a new contract as Villa captain, Delph joined Man City in 2015. Like his predecessor Barry, Delph never settled among the Cityzens and opted for an Everton move, ending his career in 2022 after three seasons as a Toffee.
Picking up those rejects from Manchester City proved to be a wise strategy for Everton over the years. Would it repeat with Grealish, too? We're about to see...
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