Grealish agreement reached after transfer statement as Man City star left 'hurt'

Jack Grealish was an unused substitute in Man City's FA Cup final defeat to Crystal Palace and has been told that he should leave the Etihad Stadium after falling out of favour

Alan Shearer has been supported in his claim that it's high time for Jack Grealish to part ways with Manchester City. The 29-year-old has found himself on the fringes of Pep Guardiola's plans this term, having only been in the starting line-up for seven Premier League matches.

The England international was also an unused substitute during Saturday's FA Cup final loss to Crystal Palace, sparking rumours that he might be on his way out from City. Newcastle United icon Shearer believes it should signal the end of the road for Grealish.

"His time is up at Man City. He has to leave," Shearer said on The Rest Is Football podcast. "For him (Guardiola) to bring on a debutant, a young boy (Claudio Echeverri), and [Ilkay] Gundogan rather than Jack Grealish when they're desperate for a goal...

"His time is up. He's done at Man City, he has to leave. For whatever reason Pep is done with him, he doesn't like him."

Grealish joined City for a staggering £100million four years ago and played a pivotal role in their 2023 treble-winning campaign. But he has seen his prominence at the club decline, making just one Premier League start in 2025.

Guardiola made clear that talks about Grealish's next move are expected at the end of the season. In agreement with Shearer's view, former Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster has said that a transfer could reignite Grealish's stalling career.

Speaking on his Fozcast podcast, Foster said: "He's not in a great place because he's not going to get in the England squad in the summer. He'll have a whole summer to go away, and he'll be thinking about this. I guarantee this would have hurt him and this would have left a big old dent on Jack Grealish.

"I don't know where he's going to go at the start of next season. I think he's going to struggle to find a team that is going to take on that responsibility and those wages and the demands that he's going to be expecting."

The former Wrexham keeper added: "We need him to go and go away for the summer, get his head down, get a move to somewhere where he's the main man again and give us another four or five years of Jack Grealish being at his best."

Guardiola has discussed Grealish's current situation at City, confirming that discussions on his future are pending with outgoing director of football Txiki Begiristain, incoming director Hugo Viana, and the player's representatives.

He said: "We didn't talk, I didn't talk with him. People don't believe me, but these things belong to the agents and the club and Txiki, and in this case Hugo as well. Both will decide. What is going to happen will happen, but he has to come back to start to play minutes again.

"It's not [only] Jack. There is not one player in my locker room, and I think all the locker rooms around the world, that is happy [when they] do not play. When the team is winning and winning they have to figure out how everything happens – but they are not happy.

"They are here to play and, when they don't play, they are not satisfied. That is the normal position in all the clubs."